A Lost Girl
by Esme-Fan
Summary: A series of unfortunate events (among them a violent ex boyfriend and a difficult past) lead to Bella fleeing from home and making an attempt at a fresh start at a private school in the Pacific northwest – it fails. The Cullens soon realize that the mysterious girl might change their whole world and they do everything they can to save her. But will it be enough? (Canon pairings)
1. Prologue

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome! "A Lost Girl" was my first fanfiction ever (I actually started writing it way back in 2012). It was originally was written in German and received some pretty positive feedback, so I decided to make it accessible to a wider audience and started translating.

Some general information: I'm keeping the canon pairings, the Cullens are all vampires. There will be no wolves in this story (I never was a huge fan of them anyway). It is rated M for quite a bit of violence, but there most likely won't be any lemons and I am not planning on having any really discriptive violence-related scenes either, so I might change the rating to T sometime, I'm not sure yet.

I also want to warn you that it will take quite a few chapters until the actual love story starts, as Bella and the Cullens first have to go through some tough stuff. Don't let that scare you off. It'll be worth it!

As I said already, this is a translation, but if you have any requests or suggestions regarding the story - I'd love to hear them. Is there anything I keep doing wrong (like English-wise)? Let me know. Anything you really like? Let me know. Any feedback is highly appreciated! Happy reading!

 _(And yes, I have completely replaced the original prologue with something I hope will fit this story a little better)_

* * *

 **Prologue**

 _12-10-11/10:24 p.m._

 _Forks, WA_

 _Bella's Pov._

Rain was violently drumming against my window, but the storm outside was nothing in comparison to the one raging inside of me. I had wrapped my arms around my knees in an attempt to hold myself together, but it still felt like my world had fallen apart and been split into a million little pieces and there was nothing I could do to keep them from drifting apart even further. The past few months had been like an unending nightmare and I was starting to lose all hope.

Sure, I had an amazing family and great friends. I was good-looking, smart, and well-liked, but what was the point of going on if life would just continue to tear me down? How could I know that this life wouldn't just continue to get worse and worse? I always tried to look on the bright side and find some sort of silver lining at the horizon, but weeks had gone by and I still hadn't found anything of substance. The Cullens had been nice enough, but how could I know that they wouldn't hurt me?

After all, I had trusted Jacob with all my heart and he had betrayed my trust in the most terrible way. Things had already been difficult before, but two months ago, he had killed the little spark of hope inside of me that he himself had planted and I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to lead a normal life again. Why had I let him have so much control over me? He had made me leave my family – my parents, Abby, my little sunshine – behind. I had run for my life and not even that had worked. So, what possibly could? And if I couldn't trust him, whom could I trust?

My whole life seemed like an endless series of awful events and terrible luck, so was it really worth it?


	2. Bella

Bella

Friday 11-15-11/13:37

Esme's Pov.

Unhurriedly I was walking to our garage when my cell phone started ringing. A really familiar number appeared on the display. It was my husband, Carlisle. I answered the phone and immediately I could hear Carlisle's wonderful voice.

"Hi Darling, I'm so sorry, but I won't be able to come to Port Angeles with you", he said.

"An emergency?" I asked. It wouldn't be the first time. My husband was a physician at the local community hospital and there often were emergencies that caused him to work a lot longer than he was supposed to.

"Yes, of course... I mean, what else? Somebody wasn't intelligent enough to follow the speed limits. The tree was there faster than the young man thought. He will probably be fine, but it will take me some time to treat his injuries. I don't want anybody to die and I'm on call, so it's my job to look after him. Sorry sweetheart", he said.

"No problem", I assured him, "I'll see you later. I love you." "I love you too."

So I got into my grey Mercedes on my own. On my way to the airport of Port Angeles I had a lot of time to think about god and the world – the highways were empty (not unusual for the area, it was only sparsely populated) and it was drizzling a little bit. That was the normal weather for the coastal areas of Washington State. On the Olympic Peninsula, the climate was quite humid and rainy, perfect for vampire. We didn't want to arouse attention or make anyone suspicious, so it obviously was great if there were barely any days on which we couldn't go out.

I also thought about my family. I just loved them so much. There was no way I could live without them. Carlisle, my husband, was really generous, Emmett was optimistic and funny, Alice was very buoyant, Jasper was calm and intelligent and Rosalie... Well, Rosalie was just Rosalie. I was a bit worried about Edward though. In the past few years he kept getting more quiet and lonely. He was the only one of us who hadn't found his the love of his life yet. I couldn't remember him laughing even once this month. I was sure that he would find the right girl one day – he was a wonderful young man with a great manners and a lots of different talents and I couldn't find even one reason why he wouldn't be the perfect partner for a lovely young lady.

I got a little bit nostalgic as I remembered how Alice and _her_ Jasper were standing at our door in 1948. That was almost 64 years ago. Time really did fly by…

I was also thinking about my own life – although the word 'existence' maybe was a better fit. I was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1895 as the only daughter of Peter and Theresa Platt. Now we were writing the year 2011 and I still looked like 26. My life was a bit crazy, but I was happy.

I had the best husband in the world and five wonderful children, whom I loved more than anything else. I could spend an eternity with them and never get tired of all their little quirks. Sometimes it wasn't that bad to be immortal.

Meanwhile I arrived at the airport. It was just Port Angeles, so it was tiny and while it technically was an international airport because of the close proximity to Canada, but they really only had a couple of flights coming in per day. Most of them were coming out of Seattle, but there also were some charter flights to other cities in the region.

I was waiting for Isabella. She was a new student at the boarding school – _our_ boarding school. It was thanks to Alice that Isabella was coming here. She made us organize a poetry competition because of one of her visions. Isabella's poem was the best by far.

It was about war and peace, about grief and happiness. It showed how close some opposites were and how quickly a situation could change. I fell in love with the poem the moment I first read it and so did everybody else. The first prize was a full scholarship for the _CPS_. She first didn't want to move here because she was from Switzerland and all her friends and family were there too. I could really understand her decision and offered her to come back on the scholarship whenever she wanted to.

Now Isabella had decided to accept the offer and move to the United States – on condition that she was paying half of the school fees. She told me it just wouldn't feel right to go to school here for free even if she didn't have any financial problems and that other people needed scholarships more than her.

Alice was describing Isabella as an unusually pretty girl with long brown hair, pale skin and a skinny body. Already for several days, the whole family was thinking about her all the time and Edward was quite pissed off by that – if I was allowed to say it like that. He could read our thoughts so one of the only things he had been seeing for the last few days was Isabella Swan.

The airplane landed meanwhile and the passengers were getting off. The plane had an astounding capacity of about 20 people, so I immediately recognized Isabella. She was the youngest person among the group of passengers walking towards me. She had a medium-sized trolley, a small black shoulder bag and a violin case. I was a bit confused about the latter, but I was sure I would get an answer if I ask her.

Alice' description actually applied perfectly, but Isabella was a lot prettier, skinnier and paler than I expected. I was a little worried because Rose couldn't stand if somebody was as pretty as her. Fortunately this happened quite rarely – she really was a beautiful young woman, but Isabella was really pretty too. Rosalie could get very aggressive and she could seriously harm her 'rivals'. Isabella was human and wouldn't have a real chance if Rose would get angry. I expected the worst.

More about her appearance – she was wearing dark blue jeans, a beige trench coat and flats. It looked great. Alice would probably think that it was too tame and not fancy enough, but I really liked it. I was amazed by her appearance generally, but I was most astonished by her face.

It was very narrow, heart-shaped and just gorgeous. Her light green eyes were framed by long, black eyelashes and looked at me friendly and somehow curiously. Their color was fascinating – I had never seen eyes like these before. Isabella's eyebrows were gently bent and reinforced the kind expression on her face. Her long dark brown hair was pinned up into a perfect bun and her motions – even though I would have never even dared to think that until five minutes ago – were, if possible, even more graceful than Alice'. And that said a lot.

She seemed to be inauthentically perfect – and I had never even talked to her face to face. There had to be a catch somewhere… I made a few steps in her direction and stretched my hand out. I was standing quite close to her. There were maybe three feet between us and now I could see that she was shivering. Not a lot, but I was still asking myself why that was.

She took my hand and started speaking, even though she was still shivering a bit, with a surprisingly calm voice: "Hello Mrs. Cullen, nice to meet you."

It sounded friendly and I was optimistic that she was a nice person. What surprised me a little bit was that she was speaking perfect English with an obvious British accent. She was Swiss, so I didn't really expect that.

"Hello Isabella, I'm glad to meet you too. You can call me Esme. How are you?" I asked her. "I actually prefer Bella. I'm fine, how about you?" "I'm doing great. I was already looking forward to meeting you, Bella. Carlisle, my husband couldn't come with me to pick you up. There was an emergency at the local hospital", I explained.

"That's no problem at all. My Dad is the head physician of a hospital, so this sounds very familiar. There are a lot emergencies at his hospital, it's the leading trauma center of the region. It's obvious that patients come first", she replied. Her voice sounded kind of distant, but her eyes were watching me attentively. We walked to the Mercedes together.

During the trip back home (which took about one hour) I asked Bella a few questions about her old school in Switzerland.

I found out that she had been going to _Summers School of Arts_ , short _SSA_ , until now. That was a small, but world-renowned private school in Switzerland, her home country. Around 400 students from all over the world and in all grades went to the school. It was really hard to get in and without a scholarship it was also really expensive. Whoever went there could be really proud.

The admission standards were extremely high, you had to be very gifted in at least one of the so-called 'arts'. I was pretty sure that the 'arts' were music, a few athletic disciplines, and academics. "I don't mean to be blunt, but how did you get into your old school? I've heard the acceptance rate is below 5%" I asked Bella. She wasn't feeling comfortable talking about the subject and her cheeks blushed.

"I first got in because my parents both went there and I seemed to be really good at learning languages and I also liked numbers and such things. I went to my first ballet lesson when I was six years old and it turned out that I wasn't too bad at that either." That sounded interesting.

"I assume you also play the violin...?" I asked. "Yes, I had to take lessons when I got to 3rd grade and I really enjoy it. I think I'm okay at it, but there are some musical geniuses at SSA and I was nowhere close to being as good as them. I brought it with me because it would have broken my heart to leave my violin at home. I really love it." "It seems like if you were the perfect _SSA_ student. Why did you decide to leave such a fantastic school? I know that it was me who offered you the scholarship, but still – your new school isn't that well-known."

"I know, but you have a really good reputation as well. The pressure that was on me in Switzerland was just too big. Everybody expected me to solve all the world's problems and I was expected to win awards and competitions. I just want to live my life the way I want, in Switzerland it was dictated by the school. Besides that … there also was a little incident that definitely sped up the decision process. It made me think about my life and the way I wanted to live. I want to start from zero again because I don't want to be in my famous parents shadow anymore. I want to be Bella Swan, I don't want to be 'the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Swan'. That's why I came here."

She sighed. "Um, Mrs… Esme? Is it a problem if I'm ahead of the curriculum? I'm not sure, but I imagine that the curriculum at the _SSA_ is a bit more stressful than yours." I had to grin. She almost was too friendly – it seemed like she was afraid of my answer. "That's no problem. I already thought that you would be ahead. All the European students we've had so far were really well-educated, and if I look at where you come from… I just hope that you won't be too bored." I laughed.

"By the way, why is your English so good? I mean you're Swiss, right? English isn't the language you speak there, I guess", I asked. "That's a legitimate question. There are actually four official languages in Switzerland – German, French, Italian and Romansh – but my father originally is from Great Britain, so we talk English at home quite frequently. Additionally half of the classes in Switzerland were English because the SSA is such an international school", she responded with a shrug. That seemed to make sense, so I nodded.

"Cool. I personally really like British English. My husband was born and raised in London. He will be happy to hear someone with a British accent. There aren't many tourists or immigrants from England in the region and he misses talking the way he was used to before he came here. He usually hides his accent because people keep asking him about it", I told her.

Bella was talking to me openly and she was very friendly. She was also patiently answering all of my questions, but somehow I felt like she never really smiled. Her face spoke another language than her words. It was kind of strange…


	3. The Arrival

Hello again! Thank you for reading! If you have any suggestions and tips on what could be improved, let me know. Any feedback is appreciated!

* * *

The Arrival

Friday 11-15-11/14:54

Esme's Pov.

"Look, Bella, that's your new home. Can you see it?" I asked and pointed to the three grand buildings that were located close to the woods amid a gorgeous park. That was Cullen's Private School. I drove the Mercedes up the avenue to the forecourt. In the middle of that small piece of land there was a huge marble fountain.

"It's nice here." Bella sounded sincere. She really seemed to like it. "OK, let's go. Somebody will take care of the luggage later." I went up the wide stairs to the entrance of the main building and Bella followed me. "Well. This is the main building. Behind the door on the left, there are a communal room and a big public workroom. There also is a dining hall behind this door. On your right hand side you can get to the offices and the teachers' lounge. We will go there a bit later. The upper floors are where most of the classrooms, the library and some of the students' apartments are located", I explained. Bella nodded.

"I'll quickly go to see if Carlisle is back already. Could you wait here for a few seconds?" "Of course – will you come and pick me up later?" she asked. She was a really well-behaved young lady… This had gotten quite rare through the years. "Yeah, of course."

I went through the door on the right. On my way I thought about the possible Bella-Rosalie-Conflict. I hoped it wouldn't become a real problem. I was going to tell Rose that she shouldn't bother Bella too much. I was hoping that it could change Rosalie's mind that it seemed like her appearance wasn't too important for Bella. I hadn't known her for long, but she appeared to be different from most of the girls her age. Her clothing made a pretty mature impression on me and she wasn't wearing a lot of make-up – she just really didn't need it. Rose probably wouldn't understand it, but hopefully she would leave Bella alone. I sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.

A few seconds later I started thinking about who of the two was pettier. Of course – this wasn't a question that could be answered clearly. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, so it wasn't easy. They both were just gorgeous, in very different ways, which made it even harder to decide. Everybody who saw only one of the two would say that she was the most beautiful girl they had ever seen… Rosalie was the classic beauty, the incarnate ideal of beauty – long, blonde hair, angelic facial features, long legs and big blue eyes. Bella wasn't that _normal_. She was more of unique beauty. If I had only heard the exact description of her face, I wouldn't have thought that she was so beautiful. It was really hard to say, but I decided that Bella probably was prettier, just because there was no one else that looked like her.

The rather sharp features of her chin were a contrast to her big, friendly eyes. Bella had a slight button nose, that didn't really consort with her chin, but somehow it complemented her face. It made her even prettier. Her eyebrows were quite bold and they were more straight than curved. They were enhancing her eyes. As I said – she was a really unusual beauty. I wouldn't even have been thinking about someone prettier than Rose, but Bella showed me that it actually was possible.

Meanwhile I had returned to Bella. "Carlisle isn't here yet, but that shouldn't be a problem. We'll just start without him", I informed her with a shrug. Bella nodded. I opened the door on the right again and we walked down the hall to my office. It was the one in the very back and it was quite a long hallway. The building itself already was really old and so was the corridor. We entered the room together. I offered her a seat and she sat down after she thanked me. I myself sat down behind my big mahogany desk.

Bella was looking at the family portrait I had on the desk and viewed it with a wistful expression. "Are you missing your family? I mean you left them only a few hours ago, but still… Do you think you will get homesick a lot?" I asked her. "I wouldn't say that I miss them – not yet. It is kind of sad that we are on different continents though. I usually don't tend to get homesick, but I don't really know when I will return to Switzerland. Maybe my parents will come to visit me at Christmas, so I might see them then, but I probably won't go home again anytime soon… We'll see", Bella responded. She sighed – again – and looked me in the eyes. Only now I noticed the long, almost invisible scar right above her left eyebrow. With a start I looked somewhere else. My eyes wandered to her right cheek. There was a long, vertical scar on her cheek too. It went from her lower cheek to her temple. Probably nobody ever saw the scars, so I didn't ask her about them. Quickly I looked at my desk and searched it for a few documents I needed.

"My family is really looking forward to meeting you. Especially Alice. She can't wait", I told her and tried to forget the scars – which of course was impossible because the more you try to forget something, the more you will think about it. And there was also still the fact that vampires never forgot anything. But thinking about my short, but absolutely crazy daughter made me grin.

"So…" I started, "Let's talk about your room first." She nodded to tell me that she was fine with that. "Here at Cullen's Private School two students share a room respectively a small apartment. The apartments contain two sleeping rooms, two bathrooms with a shower, a small living room and a small kitchen. Of course you can always eat at the dining hall. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are available to all students free of charge and you can additionally buy other snacks, such as sandwiches or cake, during the day. Okay, so because you're new and don't yet know anybody here, you'll stay in one of our guestrooms for one week so you have enough time to think about with whom you want to share your room. At the moment there are two students without a partner. Tomorrow another student will arrive. Is this alright for you?"

"Yes, of course." "Any questions so far?" "Not really… I like the thought of having an kitchen. I'm allergic to gluten – it's good if I have the possibility of cooking my own food", she said and sounded delighted. "I feel sorry for you. You're actually not the only one at this school, so we have some gluten-free products. Carlisle once told me that it can be very tedious to live with that allergy." I didn't tell her, that this actually was 15 years ago, when this particular allergy wasn't yet this common. Over the years it had kind of become a widespread disease. "Yeah, that's right. Almost everything contains wheat." While she was talking, she frowned.

"Alright, school starts at eight a.m. each morning and at three p.m. Lunch break is from twelve to one o'clock. You have six periods each day. After school you can do whatever you want. We offer a few extra-curricular activities – most of them are sports, but we have a few clubs and student organizations as well – and if there aren't any teams practicing, you are free to use the gym or football and baseball fields. There also is a pretty big library…" Her eyes started shining when I mentioned the library. Bella seemed to be the least nerdy nerd I had ever met.

"Oh, that's great. I only brought really few books – they're just too heavy – and in a few weeks at the latest I will run out of things to read." I smiled at her. "I'm glad to hear that. Where did we break off…? Oh, yes, there are two communal rooms. One for schoolwork and other such things – there also are a few computers you can use at all times – and the other room is for just spending time with friends, talking or reading a good book. Our armchairs are really comfortable. In the basement there are a big multi-purpose room with a piano, a small pool and a gym room. You are expected to stay in your room after ten p.m. You can still stay awake, but you should be more or less silent. Of course there are a few exceptions, but there usually is no reason to leave the room", I explained. It was great that she seemed to like it here. "That's nice."

Bella was still looking at me curiously and really alert – as if I would jump at her at the next moment. She had a lot of reasons to do this – after all I was still a vampire. Her instincts told her to not come too close – they were stronger than my efforts. I went on: "Let's come to your schedule. You hopefully already know that you will be attending my literature class." Bella nodded. "I have also written you in for Latin, math, biology and music. You already had these subjects and they are our more sophisticated subjects. And if we look at your marks I don't think you will have any problems… If there are any problems with the schedule, just let me know and I'll see if we can switch up things a bit."

The moment I mentioned that she would be attending the music-class she looked like she would throw herself at me like Alice, but after a short moment she got a bit more serious again. The door was opened and Carlisle entered the room. It looked like he had scared her because she winced a little bit, but she had gotten herself under control again really quickly.

"Oh, hello, you must be Isabella", he said. Bella took his hand and replied in her perfect British English: "Hello Dr Cullen. I'm very glad to meet you. You can call me Bella – only my Mom uses my full name." As Carlisle heard her accent, he immediately switched to British too. "Only if you call me Carlisle", he replied and smiled. He obviously enjoyed speaking with his accent once again. "Carlisle", Bella repeated quietly.

"So, let's go on. I'll repeat what I said: You already had all of your new subjects and I don't think that you'll have any problems with the curriculum." I had to grin because she seemed to be a genius – probably she would be hopelessly bored. Carlisle murmured something and shook his head. "That was the understatement of the year. I will go for: When we look at your reports we have to ask ourselves why you even still go to school", he proposed laughing. I had to laugh too.

Bella first seemed to be a bit confused. She was looking at us with the cutest expression anyone could imagine. Then she started laughing too. She had an absolutely gorgeous, really clear laugh. After a few seconds, when we got a bit calmer again, I continued talking. "Your sixth course… We have room for you in two courses. You can choose between geography and physical education, but I'm pretty sure that it shouldn't be too hard for you to decide."

"Geography!" Bella shouted immediately.

"That's what I had already thought. You don't like PE, do you?" I asked her and made a note into her file. She shook her head. "I love ballet, but I'm horrible at all kinds of sports that either contain balls or need a talent in team sports. It's a catastrophe." I signed a form and handed it over to her. She looked over it and signed it too. I forgot about my sorrows about her. It had probably just been in my imagination.


	4. A Private Tour Of CPS

A Private Tour of CPS

Friday 11-15-11/15:23

Alice' Pov.

I could hear muffled voices and laughing. There were people talking in Esme's office. I almost started jumping up and down again – I couldn't wait to see Isabella – but Emmett put on a bugged face so I didn't. When he saw that it had worked, he sighed delightedly.

"Should I show you around the school?" Esme asked, friendly as always. "Maybe you should let Alice do that – I mean, if Bella is fine with it – because she almost went crazy earlier. She's been looking forward to meeting you for weeks," Carlisle suggested. "Oh, that's no problem. Alice sounds like a nice person," Bella answered. At that moment I would have loved to just hug Dad because he gave me the opportunity. Emmett groaned loudly as I took his arm and started pulling him towards the door.

I stormed Esme's office, dragging Emmett with me. He didn't seem to be to too enthusiastic about that, but at that moment I didn't really care. I just really wanted to see Isabella. It was the first time I would ever meet her. I had had lots of visions of her, but seeing her in person was so much better. She was absolutely gorgeous – even more beautiful than in the visions I had of her. She was an extraordinary beauty with green eyes and brown hair. For some reason, I loved her style of clothing. I would have never worn her clothes - they were a little too tame for me - but they looked great on her.

Esme looked at me warningly and Carlisle giggled. Bella looked confused and scared at the same time. I went in her direction – without paying attention to Moms warning face – and glomped her. I could feel how Bella seemed to turn into a pillar of salt. She breathed in sharply.

"Hey, you must be Isabella. I'm soooo pleased to meet you. I couldn't wait for this moment. I'm sure that we're going to be great friends one day. I will show you everything and we could go shopping sometime if you want." I was very excited, the words just wouldn't stop coming out of my mouth.

"Let me guess... You must be Alice then, right?" Bella said. Her voice was still a bit shaky. Emmett sighed. "That's Alice as she lives and breathes... But a little crazy never hurt anyone," Dad chuckled and put one of his hands on my right shoulder. Emmett started laughing. "Alice, you should really stop overwhelming Bella like that. Let the poor girl breathe, I don't want her to choke and she is going to turn blue really soon," he joked. I stepped back and Bella relaxed a little bit. Emmett cleared his throat.

"By the way, I'm Emmett - I promise, it gets better with time. Really glad to meet you" he said and shook her hand. "The pleasure is all mine," Bella said and smiled, although I could see that she didn't really want to be too close to him. He was a big guy and could definitely be a little intimidating, so I didn't blame her. Bella generally seemed not to like being in a room with four people she didn't know. I could kind of understand that. She was in a new country with an unknown culture and everybody was asking her things. Probably she was pretty tired of the flight and the long time she had been awake because of the time difference. But I was still so excited about her arrival and I wanted to know everything about her...

"I'll show you around," I announced in pleasant anticipation. "OK," Bella answered, but it sounded more like a question. In my visions she always was very self confident and independent, but now she seemed to be really tired and a little bit of insecure. "Emmett, can you get her luggage? Please be careful with the violin." Mom sounded strict.

"A violin?," Emmett asked Bella. "Um... Yeah, I just couldn't leave it. I love my violin. It is quite old and it's been in the family for a few generations. Someone should play on it. It would be sad if no one used it." "All right," Emmett responded a little bit confused. Bella laughed. It was one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard. "Thank you for taking the luggage. That's really nice of you," she said then.

"Ready?" I asked. Bella nodded. "Yeah" "Let's go then..." I said, took her hand and we left the office. Emmett was with us until we reached the big entrance hall. There he said goodbye and grinned as he went to get Bella's stuff. I took Bella to the communal rooms. It was Saturday afternoon, so I wasn't really surprised about the fact that no one was in there. I showed her everything before we went to the dining room. After that we went to the basement. Its entry was hidden a bit – it was located behind two huge plants.

When we arrived downstairs I immediately pulled her in the big multi-purpose room. It had mirrors on two sides because it used to belong to a ballet academy before it had to close and the school moved in. She spotted the piano and smiled. Her eyes started shining. It seemed to make Bella happy. All she needed was a piano... At least that was what I thought at this point of time. "It's a Steinway concert piano, type C-227. 227 centimeters long, 155 centimeters wide. They've been building this type of piano for more than 120 years, but I think that one was built in the early 80's," she said reverently. "Not bad... In fact this piano was built in spring of 1979 – you were quite close. It has been in the family since then. You know a lot about pianos, right?" I asked.

"I play the piano myself and I have been playing on some concerts. At home I first had a C-227, but now I have a D-274... It's the biggest piano in the Steinway family and probably the most popular concert piano in the world. Some people say that about ninety percent of all the concert pianos in the world are D-274s, but I'm not too sure about that..." she replied. Bella seemed to be a living lexicon. I decided to just change the topic. "How do you like it here so far?" I asked. Of course I knew what she would say (I had seen it in one of my visions), but I had to keep up the disguise and didn't want to seem unfriendly. "I like it a lot so far – thank you for asking. I'm really lucky to have the opportunity to go to school here."

"That's of course nice to hear. By the way – do you have any questions?" Bella bit her bottom lip. "Uhm... I would like to ask if I am allowed to practice ballet in this room? It would be just perfect and it would be nice to not have to give it up, you know? It is one of my biggest hobbies (and also one of my biggest talents) and it would be sad to just stop doing it..." "Of course. This house used to be a ballet academy and we converted a lot of rooms, but this one is still mostly in its original state, so it would be great if you use it for practicing ballet. You really have to show me something – I love ballet!" Bella laughed about my excitement. "If you want so... I'll have to get new shoes though," she said. "Why?" I asked.

Bella looked at me. Then she took her black bag and pulled out a pair of black pointe shoes. They looked like they had been already used a lot – the edge of the little platform was really fringed out and the leather sole on the bottom looked like it would fall off at any moment. It seemed to be an appropriate time for new shoes. "That's why... I use those for practicing. I got different ones for recitals and competitions, but these usually don't last really long... " she explained. That seemed to make perfect sense to be, but I was a bit confused as to why she carried the shoes in her bag.

"They really look a little rough. But why in the heavens do you have them in your bag?" I asked. She laughed. "Oh, I don't usually carry them with me at all times - I am not that obsessed-but I couldn't fit them in the suitcase and that was the only way I could bring them." I nodded. I dragged her out of the room and we went to the pool.

"As you have probably already made out: This is the pool. It's not super big, but you're allowed to use it whenever the swim team doesn't need it," I explained. "I'll have to buy some swimwear then!" She probably didn't think she'd need any soon, as this was the pacific northwest and it was November. "Can I come with you?" The words started slipping out of my mouth again. Sometimes I found it hard to keep my mouth shut-especially when people started talking about going shopping. I really needed to get this under control, I was about to start squeaking. Awesome, Alice, well done...

"Sure... If you'd like that...?" There was no stopping me anymore and a big grin spread on my face. I hugged her and she tensed up immediately, so I let go of her. Hugs did definitely not seem to be her things. Well, each to their own. I looked her in the eyes. They were of a pale green color, very pretty. It matched her hair. Belly had a great body, although she probably was a little skinny, possibly even more so than me. It still didn't look unproportional. I started thinking. She could probably wear about everything. The narrow blouse she was wearing probably wouldn't flatter very many people, but it looked great on Bella. Her skin was quite pale, but the white blouse kept her skin tone from looking unhealthy.

"Let's move on. I'll show you the library and the auditorium next, and then I'll show you the guest room you'll be living in until the end of the week," I informed Bella and dragged her back upstairs. We passed though the entrance hall and went straight up to the second floor. Once we arrived I took a turn left and entered the library. I stopped. "So, what do you think?" Bella looked around and seemed to like what she saw. "It's bigger than I thought. I like it!" She sounded sincerely happy.

Talking to Bella was easier that talking to most humans. Their instincts usually weren't very strong, but something deep within them told them to run (couldn't blame them for that) and no matter how hard we tried, they still had a lot of respect for us.

For some reason I trusted Bella fully, even though I didn't even really know her. It was strange and I couldn't explain it. I wasn't sure how to act around Bella because I rarely ever talked to humans, but I enjoyed spending time with her a lot. We would be great friends soon enough, I was sure of that. We walked around the library for a bit and I showed Bella all the different sections we had. It surprised me how excited she got about all our science books and the stuff that most teenagers would label as plain boring. Nobody really cared about those books-except for maybe Carlisle and the select few students who had ambitions for their lives and wanted to become doctors and lawyers. And even they were not near as excited about them.

When Bella reached the shelf with the classic literature I thought she was going to go wild any moment, but she had it back under control within a few seconds. She started to go into rhapsodies about a few of the books (which is what made me so sure that Esme would love her in her literature class), but then we continued our tour. The library had direct access to the auditorium, so that's where we went next. It was neither very big, nor very interesting, so we didn't spend much time there.

We walked across the second floor and came past some class rooms and the lockers and then went up another two stories, where our private rooms and Bella's home for the week were located. We entered the guest room. "So this is where you'll be staying for now. I'd like to introduce you to my siblings Rose, Jasper and Edward. Then I'll leave you alone and you can get settled in. Does that sound okay?" I asked. She nodded.

I stuck my head out of the door. "Rosalie? Jazz? Edward? Could you guys come over here for a moment?" I called. After a few seconds, Rosalie and Jasper came into the guest room. "Where is Edward?" I asked, a little bit confused. They looked pretty clueless. "Don't ask me. I haven't seen him all day. Do you know where he is, Rosalie?" Jasper said. Rosalie just shrugged. "No, I haven't seen him either, sorry Alice."

Suddenly Bella said something. "Um, I think I saw him in the entrance hall earlier. I recognized him on Esme's family picture. He looked pretty stressed out." That was a little strange-what was Edward stressed out about? But then again, my brother could be quite a mysterious being at times. "Well, that's great, you've already met him then. So, um... Bella, this is my sister Rosalie." I pointed to Rose with my left hand. "Rose, this is Bella. And this is Jasper. Jazz, meet Bella," I introduced them, pointing at the respective people. Bella smiled. "Nice to meet you guys."

Something about Rose's facial expression worried me. Hello there, jealousy... Fantastic, I should have seen that coming. I'd take care of that in a moment. I wasn't going to let Rose ruin Bella's first week here. "We're all excited to meet you too! We don't often get students from other countries and this town gets pretty boring at times. I'm sure you've got lots of interesting things to tell us." Rosalie just let a short "Hello" slip out.

I sighed. Why was Rosalie this arrogant? She could be such a great girl, but somehow chose not to. Of course, I loved Rosalie. She was my sister after all and I was very grateful to call her my friend, but still. This type of behavior was ridiculous. She didn't even know Bella! They had not talked to each other even five minutes and Rosalie already started treating her badly.

"Bella, I'm sure you want to unpack all your things and get settled in a little, so we're just going to leave you alone. I can show you my room later, if you want to. Jazz and I live in the room at the very back of the hall. Just come over when you're done here-or don't, if you'd prefer to get some rest. I wouldn't be upset." I smiled at her. She really had wrapped me around her little finger. We had only known each other for about an hour, so that really was saying something. "I'll be there." A big grin spread on my face.

I left the room and dragged Jasper with me. "See you later!" I yelled. Bella gave me a puzzled look, shrugged her shoulders and started unpacking. Rose immediately went back to her room. I was still holding on to Jazz's arm. He was really tense. Sometimes it was still hard for him to be around people, but I didn't think that that was the problem. He had just gone hunting a couple of nights ago, so it really shouldn't have bothered him this much. We went back to our room quietly.

"She scares me," Jazz said very suddenly, breaking the silence in. I was confused. What did he mean? Bella was one of the least scary people I had ever met. "Why?" I asked. There was no way somebody as nice and loveable as Bella could pose a real threat to a guy like Jasper. He was a vampire after all. It just didn't make sense to me. I saw how she might seem a bit intimidating to some people, but Jasper usually was a very confident person. She was anything but scary.

"You know," Jasper continued, "her emotions keep changing so quickly. But that's not really what I am worried about. It's the type of emotions she's feeling. I could feel fear and sadness... There were a number of things, but they all seemed to be negative. The only positive thing I could sense was love, but it wasn't very strong and overshadowed by disappointment. I can't tell you what happened, but somebody she loved must have taken advantage of her trust." I was baffled.

"I didn't even notice. She doesn't look like she's suffering..." Sure, Bella was a little bit reserved, but she had just arrived in this foreign country that she had never been too. It was perfectly normal to be shy at first. Jasper also didn't seem to have an answer. "I don't know how she does it. She is so calm and composed. Considering the way she is feeling, she shouldn't be able to _function_ this well."

"Why didn't you help her?" I asked. My mate was a master at manipulating the emotions of those around him. His answer hurt. "I tried, believe me, I did, but I was powerless against it. I have never experienced anything like this. Whenever I tried, it just got worse. It gave me a headache." Jasper looked sad. He sighed. "I've met people who weren't feeling near as bad as her. They all eventually gave in and their emotions broke them," he continued. I gasped. He gave me a sorrowful look.

"I don't know what to tell you. Most of them tried to fight it at first, but at some point they just couldn't stand up to the pressure anymore. Some numbed their feelings with drugs, or drenched them in alcohol. Others committed suicide. I'm so sorry, but there was just nothing I could do about it." For a second it was completely silent in our room.

"Jasper, we need to go and talk to Carlisle and Esme immediately. We can't just let this go on. We need to help Bella!" My voice sounded desperate. "Calm down sweetheart. First we will wait if Bella comes to visit you. What would you tell her if she showed up and we weren't even here? That would be incredibly rude. Just leaving here is not an option," Jasper said and stopped me from doing something stupid. He was right. As always. I was glad to have him because my impulsive nature sometimes made me do things that weren't very well thought-through.

"You are right. I'm just so worried now. I don't want Bella to suffer, that's terrible", I tried to explain myself. Jasper just smiled at me and I could feel how I got much calmer immediately. "Shhht... Alice. I know that and that's why I love you so much. It's very kind of you that you want to help her. Others would have just abandoned her, you have her back. You know, I think it's best if you just treat her like you would treat anybody else. She is hiding all those awful emotions. I'm not saying that that's a good thing-it isn't-but I'm sure she has her reason. My guess is that she's just trying to avoid that people see her as _poor little Bella that was hurt by someone_. I can understand that. We'll talk to Carlisle and Esme after she leaves," Jasper promised and I gave him a fond look. I really must have looked worried because he just sighed and gave me a tender hug. I immediately felt better. I loved my husband so much.

 _Bella was standing on the hallway and helplessly looked at the two doors on her left and right. She obviously didn't know which one was the right one. She picked the door on her right. Wrong choice. She knocked. The piano music inside the room fell silent. A slightly confused-looking Edward opened the door. He wasn't expecting anyone. When he saw Bella, he froze. So did Bella, she looked surprised and even a little scared. She did not seem to trust Edward, which was understandable. He still was a vampire and she was potential prey._

 _"Oh... I'm sorry. I was trying to visit Alice, but obviously that was the wrong door," she stuttered. I had never seen her be so insecure. "No problem, Alice's room is the one right behind you." His voice sounded strained and he didn't seem to be breathing. Something was very odd._

A vision and it would become true in 20 seconds. I couldn't allow this to happen. Jasper could feel my fear and gave me an asking look. 10 seconds. I became more unsettled and so did my husband, but I couldn't move. 5 seconds. Suddenly got up and opened my door. Bella was walking down the hall already. That was close...

 **That's it for today... Thank you to everybody who is reading! I've got a few follows and favorites now and I really appreciate it! Let me know if you have any suggestions on how I could improve the story. Requests and praise are - obviously - also welcome and much appreciated. Have a good Sunday!**


	5. Talks

**I got my first review-thanks for that! Also, 9 favs and 21 follows, which I find very exciting!**

Talks

Friday 11-15-11/4:58 pm

Jasper's Pov.

"Oh, there you are! Come in!" Alice welcomed Bella. Her voice sounded tense. "Is everything alright Alice? You sound worried. What's wrong?" Bella asked and she sincerely sounded concerned. "No, everything is fine. Nothing wrong at all." Alice tried really hard, but it didn't sound really believable. "Well, I'm not so sure about that, but I don't want to bother you. You have no obligation to tell me anything. We've literally known each other for two hours." She definitely had a point and Alice was thankful that she didn't keep digging.

I was pretty sure that Carlisle once told us that people of above average intelligence often were extraordinarily sensitive as well. He had explained that they often did a very good job at sensing people's emotions and interpreting them. It did make sense. I could imagine that smart people probably also did a better job at deducing things than their below-average fellows. Esme knew that Bella was very gifted and arranged that she was only registered for classes that typically had very high standards.

The two girls were just talking for a few minutes. I didn't consciously listen to them because I wanted them to have a certain level of privacy. After a little while, I heard how they came in my direction. I started shivering because the emotions that I could sense from Bella were intense and threatened to overwhelm me completely. I could feel that Alice wasn't feeling very good either. She felt guilty for not noticing that Bella wasn't feeling very good earlier, even though she probably knew that that was absolutely not her fault.

I wasn't sure if I could manage to be around them for much longer. The idea sounded terrifying, actually. This was harder than I had expected. As long as they hadn't seen me I could still flee and that definitely sounded like the better option. I had to hurry up before it was too late though. I quickly entered our bathroom and took a deep breath. I waited until Alice had dragged Bella into our giant walk-in closet. That would give me some time. The thing was huge and very well-filled. It would keep them busy for a few minutes.

Alice was showing Bella one of her countless dresses, it seemed to be the knee-length, dark purple one that she found at some boutique in Seattle just a couple of weeks ago-it was a personal favorite of hers. That was my cue. It was time for me to escape. Skillfully I slipped out of the bathroom, ran across the living room and opened the glass door that led to the balcony.

I slipped outside. It was raining-what a surprise-and I got wet, but I didn't care. I couldn't see anyone down in the park. That was good because if someone saw me jumping from the 4th floor and ending up being fine, questions would be asked and I wasn't looking for trouble. Searched the park again, jumped off the balcony, and gracefully landed on the gravel below. I immediately started walking towards the main entrance because I had no interest in getting even wetter than I already was.

I still couldn't see anyone, so ran. Split seconds later I reached the big wooden door. I stepped inside and strolled up the stairs. I tried to prepare for the upcoming encounter. I didn't want to seem rude and just not show up and the escape had let me think and relax a little. It was going to be okay. I was ready to enter the room. I took another deep breath, took a big step towards the door. I waited for a few seconds and entered our room. As soon as I opened the door I could feel a massive wave of bad feelings hit me, but I was prepared and it didn't bother me as much as it did before.

"Hi," I said when I spotted the girls in the living room. I tried to avoid breathing the best that I could. Bella smelled really good and my throat was on fire, but I had everything under control. I sat down next to Alice, as far away from Bella as I could without making the situation awkward. I didn't want to get too close to Bella and I think that she felt the same way. I didn't want to risk anything and accidentally hurting her definitely wouldn't improve the current situation. I gave Alice a kiss-it was just a peck, nothing inappropriate-and she smiled at me.

Bella seemed to notice that I was still feeling a little uneasy because she looked at me thoughtfully and knit her brows, but she didn't say anything about it. I was thankful for that. I tried smiling at her, but probably wasn't too convincing, so I just gave up on it. For a little while, the room was completely silent. Nobody really knew what to say and the situation was a little awkward, so I decided to be the one to break the silence. "So Bella, how do you like it here so far?"

"I love it! Everything is so open and pretty, which is something I really like. The library is amazing. You know, I brought a few, but I'm quite an avid reader, so they won't last too long. It's good to know that there's always books around. The multi-purpose room in the basement is a dream. I am a dancer and I usually practice quite a lot and according to Alice this literally used to be a ballet academy, so it's perfect. The piano is great too, although I don't play near as well as I'd like to. The weather is a plus too. I love rain and Forks seems to get quite a bit," Bella answered.

Alice and I both gave her a baffled look. I was pretty sure that not a single student had ever mentioned that they actually liked the climate here. Most of them just sort of accepted it, but usually they weren't too fond of all the precipitation we got all year round. This girl seemed to be full of surprises, it was fascinating.

"Really?" Alice asked and her voice sounded incredibly confused in a very adorable way. I chuckled. "Yeah, I actually do. I have some pretty bad seasonal allergies and the rain definitely helps with that. And you know, when it's raining it isn't snowing. I mean, snow is great too, but where I lived in Switzerland, it would start snowing in November and then it wouldn't stop until April with some occasional snowfall in May. You get kind of tired of it after a while," she said with a shrug. That sounded sensible.

"Where exactly are you from anyway?" Alice wanted to know. "Um... The town is called Hauptsee (AN: This is a fictional town, located in the mountainous part of central Switzerland.). It's pretty small, so I'd be more than surprised if you had ever heard of it," Bella answered. "Where exactly is it?" I asked. Bella bit her lip, probably trying to think of a way of explaining it. "Well, how much do you guys know about Switzerland?"

I sighed. "Not very much, to be honest. But we have a big world atlas." Alice nodded. "That would be great. Can I use it?" Alice's nod became even more enthusiastic and she immediately got up. How did I even put up with all this energy every day? I wasn't sure-all I knew was that it was something I loved about her and I wouldn't want it any other way. She left the living room to get the book. Not even 20 seconds later she was back and excitedly handed Bella the atlas. Bella found a map of Switzerland and unerringly pointed on a town on the map.

"So that's where you lived?" I said, pointing at her hand. She shook her head. "No, not quite. But really it's not a very big country. I think the state of Washington is more than ten times bigger than the entire country of Switzerland. This is Zurich, the most populous city with about 400,000 inhabitants. It seems tiny when you compare it with some American cities, but it's still bigger than ... I don't know... Boise maybe? I'm not sure." She smiled and pointed on a different town. "So, this is Lucerne, another city. Hauptsee isn't on the map, but it's located somewhere between Zurich and Lucerne, so probably about here." She moved her finger.

"It has about 9000 inhabitants and it's located in the alps at about 5500 feet above sea level. That actually makes it one of the highest town in Europe," she explained. "Isn't it cold there?" I asked. She shook her head. "I suppose that the climate is a bit cooler than it is here in Forks, but it's not too bad really. Forks is actually located farther north. I winter it does get pretty cold sometimes and we often get a bunch of snow, but temperatures rarely every sink below 10 degrees Fahrenheit (AN: That's about - 15 Celsius y'all). It never gets too hot in summer, but temperatures will be above 80 degrees (AN: That's about 25 Celsius) on a few days each summer." She shrugged her shoulders.

While she was talking about her home, her emotions became a little less strong, but all the fear and the sadness never went away completely. That wasn't much of a surprise to me-it would take much more than just talking to her about random topics to make things easier for her. It wouldn't be easy.

Bella yawned. I couldn't hold it against her. 9 hours of time difference were pretty rough on humans. She had been on the road for almost 15 hours and I wasn't sure how much of that time she spent sleeping, so it was obvious that she was exhausted.

"Bella? Have you thought about when you want to go shopping with me yet?" Alice was practically bouncing up and down next to me and she sounded very excited. I would probably never understand how such a simple thing as shopping could bring so much _joy_ to someone, but I had stopped questioning her sometimes strange behavior many years ago. "Oh, I don't know. I don't really have anything planned yet. When do you have time?" Bella asked. Alice thought about it for a minute. "You know, we'll have a day off school in two weeks because they are doing some work on the power system, so they aren't able to hold any classes. Maybe we could go then?" Alice proposed. Bella nodded. "Sounds good."

I gave her a compassionate look. "Alice is taking you shopping? Are you sure that that's something you want? I am telling you, it's an imposition because she will drag you in every single store and breaks don't exist in her world." I got a death glare from Alice, but Bella just shrugged. "I'm sure I'll survive." Alice smiled. "Oh, you will. Jasper is exaggerating. He's a guy, so he just doesn't understand," Alice assured her and stuck her tongue out at me. Bella laughed. She had the most beautiful laugh I had heard in a long time, but how could she even laugh when she was feeling so awful? That shouldn't even be possible... My face twitched, but nobody seemed to notice.

After a little while, Bella announced that she would go back to her room to get some sleep. "Good night, I'll see you around," I said when she got up to leave. "See you around Jasper. Have a good night and sleep well." Alice could barely hold back a chuckle-it was just hilarious every time we were told something along those lines-and I couldn't help but smirk either. She had no idea...

Bella had left the room and I could hear her speaking with Esme out on the hall. It sounded like they were talking about her dinner and my understanding was that Esme had made her some scalloped potatoes. I found the idea of covering potatoes with cheese and cream pretty disgusting, but humans usually seemed to like it.

"We should go and see if mom and dad are here," I proposed. Alice nodded. "Yes, definitely. We really need to talk to them." We went to the family living room together. Carlisle and Esme were cuddling on one of the white designer sofas. They smiled at us when we came in, but our faces must have looked pretty worried because they immediately gave us confused looks. "What happened?" Esme definitely sounded worried. I sighed.

"I'm not 100% sure, but there's something wrong with Bella," I answered. At that moment, a very puzzled Edward entered the living room. He must have heard our thoughts. Carlisle gave me an asking look. "Her emotions. No normal person could handle that. They are way too strong. I could actually feel them when she was in a different room. I tried calming her down a little bit, but no matter what I did, I couldn't change her emotions. It gave me a headache and it's really hard to be around her," I informed the others. "What is she feeling? Judging by your tone it isn't anything good," Carlisle wanted to know.

"Lots of things, but you're right, they're almost exclusively negative things. I think the strongest emotion is fear, followed by disappointment, I'd say. A normal person couldn't handle this kind of thing. I don't even know how she can be so calm... The only positive thing I could sense was love. It wasn't very strong and pretty well-hidden, but it was definitely there and it was a very profound. I don't know who it is for, but it's definitely there," I answered.

"Edward, do you know more?" Carlisle asked, looking at my brother. He shook his head. "I can't tell you anything, dad. I can't read her mind. It's like she isn't even there. I've never experienced anything like this before." Carlisle pinched his nose and sighed. "Where are Rose and Emmett? I suggest that we all talk about this together." We all nodded. "I'll go get them," I offered and left the living room, walking towards their room.

I stopped in front of the door and knocked. I waited for about 15 seconds, until Rose opened the door. She looked slightly annoyed. "What do you want, Jasper?" "We're having an emergency family meeting in the living room," I answered. She sighed. "Emmett, can you come over here real quick," she yelled at her husband, but it was pretty pointless, as he had been standing right behind her for a little while now. "What's wrong?", he wanted to know. "You'll see. It isn't too nice, to be honest." We went back to the living room. Alice had already explained everything to the others.

"So what's..." Emmett said, in his usual cheerful tone, but he stopped abruptly and his smile froze when he saw our faces. His face became serious and he looked confused. Rosalie started looking worried too. "What happened?" she asked and I could sense some tension in her voice. Rosalie did not like not being fully informed. Carlisle sighed. "That is a very good question and we don't know yet. All we could find out so far was that there's something wrong with Bella."

Emmett looked even more confused now. "I am not following," he said. Rose just slowly shook her head. "You're not the only one then. I don't understand...?" They were both getting increasingly nervous. Edward started speaking. "I can't read her mind. Complete silence. And Jasper is close to having a nervous breakdown whenever he's in a room with her," he explained, but he didn't seem to be too helpful. "But why?" Rosalie asked me. I took a deep breath. "Her emotions. They aren't normal either-quite far from that, actually. She is feeling a lot of things, mainly fear, pain, and panic. Also grief and complete devastation. It's like someone took the whole spectrum of negative emotions and made her feel it. The only remotely positive thing I could sense was love. Not very strong, but it was definitely there. She feels absolutely awful." For a little while we all remained silent. "Her feelings are also much stronger than normal. I could sense them from quite a distance."

"She mentioned having celiac disease and some pretty bad allergies earlier. She smells like a diabetic and if I remember right, her record listed a few other health issues. Something is very wrong here," Esme said. Now that I thought about it, I noticed the smell too. Diabetics tended to have a slightly sweeter smell. At least diabetes was a pretty manageable disease nowadays. "She sometimes seemed to be a tiny little bit apathetic to me. It was just for tiny little moments-never more than for a couple of seconds-until she had herself under control again and then she was the epitome of calmness, but still..." Alice said. Suddenly she took a sharp breath. She was sitting next to me and I pulled her towards me.

"Alice, what's wrong? What did you see?" She shook her head and squinnied. She seemed upset. "Newton," she hissed. It actually made her sound dangerous-like the predator she was. "But what exactly did you see?" I asked again. She sighed. "I don't know, I'm not sure. I just saw that he was yelling at somebody. I couldn't see the other person. It was a girl, but the vision somehow was a little blurry. He was so angry..." We all just sat there and thought about it for a minute, but no one was sure what the vision was really about.

"I will do some research. I'll try finding out a little bit more about Bella and maybe also her family. It seems like there is a lot we don't know. We should just discuss this again later, when we have some more information. I don't think we're really getting anywhere here." We all just nodded.


	6. Research

Research

Friday 11-15-11/8:01 pm

Carlisle's Pov.

Let's see then, I thought to myself while I was walking towards my office. I first wanted to check if there was anything useful in my library. What could do something like this to a person? Sure, I knew about things like post-traumatic stress disorder (which was one of the things I wanted to look into) and how an emotional trauma could have a huge impact on people, but after all, I was no psychologist and needed to do some research on this before I could draw any conclusions.

Maybe _Psychology Today_ , a professional journal about, well, psychology would be helpful. I remembered seeing some article on how to deal with traumatized patients recently. That didn't sound too bad. I also had a few psychology books in my library, but most of them dealt with actual mental illness and I was pretty sure that Bella wasn't schizophrenic or bipolar, so I wasn't sure if they'd actually contain any useful information. I hadn't studied psychology in more than 50 years because I didn't enjoy it very much and things were done very differently back then, so I was no expert in this field.

After that, I definitely wanted to take a closer look at Bella's record. Esme had mentioned that she saw some irregularities in her health information and I wanted to make sure that I took everything into consideration. I stepped into my office and went straight to the spiral staircase in the back corner of the room. My library was located right underneath the roof, above my office. Some of the anatomy books and literature that I used a lot were stored downstairs, but everything else was up here. The only other room up here was a little office where we did all the illegal things that were required to hide our identity. I didn't particularly enjoy breaking the law, but it was the only way to have the lives we currently were able to live.

I went over to the shelf with the psychology books and took a deep breath. There were 48 of them, so one of them was bound to contain some useful information. Maybe I would just have to take a look at all of them and mark all the important passages. That would take forever... I still wasn't sure if any of them were going to be too helpful either. Maybe I'd have to consult a psychologist because the last thing I wanted was to accidentally make the situation even worse.

Just when I was about to grab the first book, Alice stormed into the library. She looked upset, Bella must have really worried her. "The book you need is called _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders_. It's a standard reference type of book with more than 800 pages, so you really only want to look at the section starting at page 715." I gave her a slightly mean look because she had just kept me from reading some of my beloved books, which was probably exactly what she wanted to accomplish. She had done the right thing-I couldn't afford to waste any time, this was urgent.

I needed to help Bella with whatever she was struggling with. This was a moment that required rationality. The faster I found some useful information, the faster I could take action. I read the part of the book that Alice had told me to take a look at and wasn't completely satisfied with the results, but it was a beginning. The book was an encyclopedia of about all mental problems that existed, which meant that the individual things weren't described in detail, but according to the book, Bella showed some signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. I had already guessed that it was going to be something in that general direction, but this definitely corroborated the thesis. I would have to look into this some more, but that was enough for the night.

I left the library and sat at my desk with Bella's file. Esme had given it to me earlier. I flipped through the pages until I found her medical record. Those were usually pretty short, as they were only supposed to give me an overview over the general health of the student, but Bella's had several pages. I groaned-this was going to be worse than I expected... I first looked at the list of chronic diseases (that category was usually practically blank). It was a long list. The first few were pretty harmless.

Seasonal allergies. Annoying, but not exactly what one would call life threatening. That wasn't going to be a problem, especially since the climate here in Forks was actually ideal for people with bad allergies.

Atopic eczema. Also not too pleasant, but I assumed that she didn't have a particularly bad case, as I didn't notice any of the characteristic rashes. That also wouldn't cause very much trouble and could usually be easily treated.

Now things got a little more serious. Celiac disease. That one could have serious consequences, but if she was careful about what she ate she would be fine, and I assumed that she had gotten used to avoiding gluten.

Type 1 diabetes. Just like I had figured. I was pretty sure that there was a proven connection between celiac disease and type 1 diabetes, so that made sense as well. Of course it wasn't a good thing, but in this day and age, diabetes was pretty manageable. However, it usually cut life expectancy by up to 10 years and increased the risk of kidney and heart disease. Bella was one unlucky girl... How could one person end up with that many diseases-especially a 16 year-old girl?

I sighed and looked back at her file. Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, type 3 (Kufs Disease). I frowned. The name sounded familiar, but I needed to think about it for a few seconds until I remembered. I was about to go back to the library to look it up, when it suddenly hit me. This was not good. NCL was a category of several neurodegenerative diseases that would eventually lead to death. I was pretty sure that there still was no cure. I wasn't sure, what exactly type 3 was, so I grabbed an encyclopedia of neurodegenerative disorders.

According to the book, type 2 NLC was most prevalent in adults and patients could start showing symptoms at almost all ages. It usually shortened the life expectancy dramatically. I closed my eyes and thought about what that meant for Bella. This disease was bad enough by itself, but in combination with the other health problems she had, it was a disaster. She wouldn't have a very long life at all. 30 years maybe-if she was lucky.

30.

I took a deep breath. This was terrifying! I was overwhelmed by a feeling of powerlessness. There was nothing I could do to help her. Here I was, almost 400 years old, and suddenly it seemed like all my life, I had been wasting time. There could be a cure for the disease by now, if I hadn't spent all my time on meaningless things. I had to save her-there was no way that I could just let Bella die a slow and probably pretty painful death at such a young age. I sighed.

Suddenly, I felt incredibly sad. I hadn't cried in a very long time, but I couldn't stop a loud sob from escaping me. Esme must have heard it because not even ten seconds later, she was standing next to me. She looked worried. I closed my eyes and tried to get myself under control again. It was silly and being sad did not improve this terribly complicated and tragic situation in the least. Esme put her hand on my shoulder.

"What is wrong, Carlisle? You have to tell me", she said and tried to stay calm. She was usually very good at that, but today she failed. I shook my head. "30," I mumbled. I hadn't even known Bella for 12 hours, but she had already turned my world upside down. What was it about her? Of course-she was a lovely young lady. Very intelligent, well-behaved and she had a charming personality and a gorgeous face, but how had she managed to make my entire family so ... obsessed? I didn't understand, but I couldn't help but feel genuinely concerned about her.

"What do you mean? Why 30?" Esme asked. I took another deep breath, but when I wanted to tell her about all the things I had found out, I couldn't say a word. It was like my mind had been wiped completely blank. I started sobbing again. I was aware that, as a doctor, I wasn't supposed to think about my patients too much. Becoming attached to those people usually made things very complicated, but I wasn't good at it. Every time I lost a patient, something inside me just broke. And as a vampire, it was quite dangerous to develop friendships and other deep connections with humans. We couldn't risk anyone uncovering our family secret, but there was no way I was going to avoid Bella.

I felt like my legs were going to give in any second-it was a strange feeling, I hadn't felt like this even a single time since I had become a vampire-so I went over to my desk and sat down on my chair. I just couldn't think straight. _30_. Esme came over to me and hugged and squeezed me. That actually helped and I was immediately feeling better. It was amazing what the sole presence of a person could do. I slowly stopped sobbing and my mind got a little bit clearer.

Suddenly, Alice and Edward stormed into my office. Alice was already crying again and Edward was also not looking too content. I assumed that they had a general understanding of what was going on. "Can someone finally tell me what's wrong? I am getting worried," Esme demanded. She sounded a bit desperate. At that moment, Rosalie and Emmett also came in. They looked pretty confused, probably they had heard us and wanted to find out what was happening. Rosalie grabbed the file that I was still holding in my hands. She had also studied medicine a few years back. Although she didn't particularly enjoy it, it still was quite useful at times.

She quickly read the file, then she looked at me. "You have got to be kidding me! There's no way..." She shook her head. I could see real compassion in her face. That was something very rare. Rosalie wasn't a bad person, but she could sometimes seem a little harsh and she didn't usually care much for people outside of her family. She almost never actually felt sorry for humans-she envied them too much. She had envied Bella too, maybe even more than all the other people we knew. She was intelligent, absolutely gorgeous, and most of all, she was human. But all of that seemed to be gone now. It looked as if she was actually showing sympathy.

"Why?" Emmett asked, still really confused. He was also looking at Bella's file, but that seemed to add to his confusion. "Wait, Diabetes was the thing with the blood sugar, right?" he asked. "Yes. There's two types. The first one is usually diagnosed in children and The consequences are more severe. It will shorten the average life expectancy by about 15 years. Type 2 diabetes is more common in adults above the age of 40, especially in obese people. It will also shorten the average life expectancy, but only by about 8 years. There is no cure for either type, but with the right treatment, it is pretty manageable nowadays," Edward explained.

"But Emmett, there is more. She can't eat any gluten because it would severely damage her digestive organs. Gluten is a protein that is found in many grains like wheat or rye. A lot of food that humans eat today contains those grains, which can make it pretty challenging to live with that intolerance, but it is manageable too. I am not exactly sure what NCL is, but I think it's some type of a metabolic disease," Rosalie explained.

"NCL describes a group of diseases," I added. "They are all genetic degenerative disorders that affect the nervous system. That means that the body's nerve cells slowly destruct themselves until the body is no longer able to function. They are pretty rare and will all slowly take all the patients senses. At some point they can't even move anymore, fall into a coma and eventually die. That by itself is bad enough, but combined with diabetes it's a catastrophe. Both diseases can't be cured to this day. It looks like Bella probably won't have a very long life."

For a while, nobody spoke. We were all buried in thought. "So when you said 30 earlier, did you mean Bella's life expectancy?" my wife asked. I nodded. "Yes, but that is assuming that there are no severe complications." Esme nodded and we were all quiet for a few minutes. Nobody looked too happy about the situation. "But that still doesn't explain the chaos inside her," Alice pointed out and her voice sounded slightly shaky. "Or why I can't read her mind," Edward added.

They were right. Bella's health record didn't answer any of our questions. If anything, it just added to the confusion and made the situation much more complicated and confusing. What was it about Bella? In that moment I just wished that I had never tried to find reasons, but that made me feel terrible. That girl was the biggest mystery I had encountered in my entire existence.

 **A big thank you to everyone who is reading! I just wanted to give you a heads up that it might take a little while for the next chapter to be posted. Life is more than busy with school, my newly found adulthood (I turned 18 on Sunday and now I am trying to learn how to drive a car, God help me with that) and trying to make plans for the summer. Sorry!**


	7. A Morning Full Of Worries

A Morning Full of Worries

Saturday 11-16-11/8:03 a.m.

Carlisle's Pov.

 _On the next morning._ I was walking towards the guest room Bella was staying in. I had a bowl of fresh fruit in one hand, and a small basket of other gluten-free foods in the other one. After all, Bella needed something to eat (especially considering that she was both diabetic and way too thin) and I was pretty sure that she wouldn't find too many things she could actually eat in her room. We always kept some snack-staples in our guest rooms, but I assumed that none of them were gluten-free. I knocked on the door and I heard her muffled voice calling me in. I opened the door and stepped into the room.

Bella was on the phone, but she gave me a friendly wave and smiled at me when she saw me. She was talking someone, but I couldn't understand what she was saying. I had never heard the language before. It sounded a little like German-I had tried learning the language a few years back, but I wasn't close to being fluent-but it also sounded a little bit like Dutch... Swiss German maybe? That would make sense, since Switzerland was where she came from and I had heard, that they spoke a really interesting dialect there. "Tschüss Mama, love you!" were her last words before she hung up the phone. It seemed like she had been talking to her mom then. I had never met my own mother, as she died when I was born, but I was sure that I would have loved her. It sometimes still made me sad that I had never gotten a chance to get to know her.

Now, Bella turned to me and gave me another smile. "Good morning, Carlisle. Sorry for that, but I had to let my mom know that I arrived safely. I just texted her yesterday and she was nearly going insane because she was so worried," she told me-this time in a perfect British English. She still looked quite tired. "Good morning Bella. That's absolutely no problem. I'd probably be worried too. You look tired, did you not sleep well?" I asked. She shrugged. "Well, I woke up pretty early. It's already late afternoon in Switzerland and the jet lag is still getting the best of me. I'm sure I'll be just fine in a few days." I nodded. "I'm sure it will. 9 hours do make quite a difference, I suppose."

"What language was that earlier?" I wanted to know. Bella laughed. "Well, technically it was Swiss German, but I'm sure I slipped in a few words in other languages too." She shrugged. "We usually speak Swiss German and English at home, but I also learned French and Spanish at school and one of my close friends in Switzerland is Russian, so she taught me some of that too. We also had to take Latin at school, but I obviously don't use that in normal conversations. Languages are something I usually learn pretty easily." I looked at her in disbelief. "So you speak 6 languages?" This girl was just impressive. "Um, well... I am not really fluent in Russian and French has never really been a favorite of mine, but I guess you could say that." I just shook my head.

How could she seem so _perfect_? Well I knew, that not all of the perfection was real. I believed Jasper and if he said that she was not at all doing well, that was probably true, but she did a really good job at hiding it. Maybe I would have never found out if Jasper hadn't told, but now that I knew I started noticing little things. Sometimes, just for fractures of a second she didn't keep up the mask, until she noticed and immediately went back to putting on a happy face for the rest of the world. It worried me genuinely. This simply could not be healthy. Bella looked at me with furrowed brow. She looked much too old for age when she looked at me like that. The expression was way too grown-up and mature for her beautiful young face. Just now I noticed a pretty fine, but long scar on her fore-head, just above her right eyebrow. Maybe that was a clue. I still needed to find out what had happened to her.

"You're worried," she suddenly said. Shoot, I had forgotten about how attentive Bella was. Alice had warned me-she had told me that it was hard to hide anything from her and it seemed like she had been right. She picked up on emotions really fast, almost like Jasper. I sighed. "Yeah, I am pretty worried about one of my patients. She's an elderly lady and things aren't looking too good. I've known her for a little while and nothing I do seems to help," I explained. Luckily, I was a pretty good actor too. After all I had already had hundreds of years of practice. Hiding a secret existence sometimes definitely required some fibbing. She nodded. "Oh, my dad is a doctor too, so I know what you are talking about. But that's not all, is it?" Bella asked. I sighed. She _really_ was observant, so I decided to decided to tell her the truth, lying would get very far.

"I was wondering what caused the scar on your forehead. It looks like it was pretty deep," I said resignedly. Bella froze immediately and her heart skipped two beats. She had definitely not expected this. It looked like I had hit the bull's eye. All color drained from her face and her alabaster skin was even paler now than before. Her whole body started trembling. This was not good. "No one ever notices the scar anymore," she whispered tonelessly. There wasn't any emotion in her voice, it almost sounded cold-as if she didn't care in the least. It was strange, I had never seen anything like it. She wasn't herself in that moment.

Bella was completely overwhelmed with the situation and just looked at me helplessly. She was scared and held on very tightly to the table besides her. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help her, but I didn't want to frighten her even more. Her legs were shaking and eventually they couldn't carry her weight anymore. She sank to her knees. Only a few seconds had passed since I had mentioned the scar, but everything had gone really fast. Bella looked at me. Her eyes weren't as inscrutable as usually. Her face sent out a plea for help. A tear rolled down her face and fell on her shirt. She looked down.

I took a small step in her direction because I couldn't stand just watching her. Wrong choice. She flinched. "Don't, please," she whimpered and I stopped. Now I could understand Jasper fully. Bella was most definitely not feeling just fine. It was almost physically painful to see her suffer like this. Her eyes looked so _desperate_... She was holding on to the table with an iron grip, but it didn't look like she would be able to stay upright much longer. Only now I spotted more scars on her cheeks and her jaw. They must have been a few years old, as they were barely visible anymore, but those wounds must have been deep and with my extraordinary vision I could still see them. "Who did this," I whispered. This was appalling. I shouldn't have said that because it was too much for Bella. She collapsed. Luckily, I managed to catch her before her head hit the ground. Good job, Carlisle, well done, I thought.

I had just wanted to bring her some breakfast and tell her that Esme wanted to talk to her at 8.45... Instead I had completely sidelined her. I decided to take her to Esme. My wife was better at such things. I lifted her up and carried her to our living room. Six confused faces looked at me with all kinds of different emotions when I stepped through the door, carefully carrying Bella on my arms. They all didn't look too thrilled, which wasn't very surprising. I laid her on the couch. "Carlisle?" Esme asked. She sounded a little bit wary and her voice was shaking slightly. "What happened?"

I took a deep breath. "I wanted to bring her the food, so she could eat something for breakfast," I started. "Well, we already knew that," Alice remarked. "I know. So, I knocked on her door and she let me in. She was on the phone with her mother, so I just waited for a couple of minutes. You really should have heard that-they were speaking Swiss German, but kept slipping in all kinds of other languages. It was quite impressive. Eventually, she hung up and we talked to each other for a while Everything was perfectly normal. She was friendly as always. A little tired maybe, but she seemed to be feeling alright. Then I noticed a scar on her forehead. I started wondering where it had come form and got slightly worried. The wound must have been pretty deep. Of course, Bella noticed," I continued.

"I told you that she notices everything!" Alice interrupted me. I nodded. "Yes, you were definitely right about that. Anyways, she noticed my concern and asked me if everything was alright. I tried telling her about a dying patient at the hospital, but she didn't buy that. Unfortunately for me, her father is also a doctor and she guessed that it couldn't just be the elderly lady I told her about," I explained while checking her pulse. After that, I told everybody except for Esme to step back a little bit. I didn't want her to be scared when she regained conscience. Some distance wouldn't hurt.

"I asked her about the scar. Bella didn't take that very well, to put it mildly. I wasn't expecting her to be happy about the question or anything, but I didn't expect such an extreme reaction either. She was suddenly white as a ghost and started backing away from me. She started shivering and her face looked really scared. This scar can't be the result of a simple accident-someone must have deliberately caused it. This scar isn't the result of an inadvertent injury. Well, and after I broached the subject, she started looking absolutely terrified and staggering farther away from me. Then she whispered something, but I couldn't understand what exactly she was saying. I think, it was something about how nobody had ever noticed the scar. But the words were not what alarmed me. The scary thing was how she didn't _sound_ like Bella. Her voice was so ... cold... It was as if she just didn't care-as if it was none of her business. As if she didn't care that she was suffering so much." For a little while we were all silent, then I continued.

"This can't be a good sign, not caring, I mean. Bella sank to her knees. Her legs couldn't support her weight anymore, she was too shaky. I wasn't thinking and took a step in her direction to keep her from accidentally hurting herself, but that was a mistake. She managed to retreat even more, until she reached the table. She held on to the edge, I am pretty sure that she wouldn't have been able to stay upright without any support anymore. Her legs were much too weak and shaky at that point. I made another stupid choice and asked her who had done this to her. That must have been too much for her. She collapsed completely. Fortunately, I managed to catch her before her head hit the ground. I carried her here right away," I finished my monologue.

Bella finally opened her eyes after seemingly endless minutes of waiting. Her sight still shocked me. Her skin was still as ashen-pale as ten minutes earlier and her heart still sounded week. It worried me and I would have to take a closer look at it later. I couldn't risk missing something serious-I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to her because I overlooked a detail.

We all looked at her. Bella's eyes were usually so friendly and kind, but now they were empty, lacking any type of expression. I couldn't see any emotion in them. In a way it was eerie, it scared me. She had balled her hands to fists and her breathing seemed shallow. It didn't sound normal. We all could clearly feel her distrust and her fear. Jasper looked as if he was in excruciating pain. This must have been really hard for him. Suddenly, he hastily left the room. Something was more than wrong here.

"Bella?" my wife asked carefully after we had all been silent for a while. Her voice was calm and full of compassion. Esme always knew how to react in difficult situations. She always had the right words and she was great at calming people down, giving them comfort. "I am fine. I am sorry," Bella sighed, her voice was barely a whisper. No one believed her, that I could see in the worried faces around me. Bella was definitely _not_ fine.

"Really?" I asked and took a step in her direction _again._ I was such an idiot... Why couldn't I ever think about my actions for even a second? How could I keep making the same mistake again and again? Moving closer to her was by no means a good decision. I closed my eyes and hated my own stupidity. Bella's slight shivering went back to a uncontrollable tremble. Bella took a deep breath. "I really hate to ask, but could you step back, Carlisle? I can't think," she asked me, struggling to maintain her composure. My proximity did not seem to improve the situation at all.

"Please, don't misunderstand me. I trust you as much as I possibly can and you have done nothing wrong. This is not your fault. I shouldn't have overreacted like that," Bella said, after I had moved away from her several feet. She already seemed much calmer. It was amazing, how something as little as a few feet distance could make such a huge difference.

Somehow, her behavior was reminding me a lot of Rosalie in the 1930s, even though they were acting nothing alike. It was strange. Unfortunately, it seemed like Rose had had the same thought and I was pretty sure that she was reminded of her fiancé. She had the sleeve of Emmett's shirt in very tight grip. He had to loosen her grasp so she wouldn't tear the fabric. Then he pulled her in a tight hug and kissed her hair gently-if Bella hadn't already found out that the two were a couple, she knew now. I actually saw a very brief smile brighten up her face for a split second, but it disappeared as fast as it had come. Too bad, Bella had such a charming smile. Rosalie relaxed slightly, but she still looked very tense.

The resemblance between the two girls was astounding, even though they were as different as two people could possibly be. It was interesting, but at the same time, it was also sad. I carefully kept an eye on both of them.

"Alice," I said quietly, so Bella couldn't hear me, "could you talk to Bella? But be careful and keep your voice as calm as you can. Try not to frighten her." Alice nodded barely noticeably and took a few small steps in Bella's direction, not wanting to scare her. Meanwhile, I went to our kitchen to get Bella a glass of water. When I came back, she was already looking much better than before. She was sitting on the sofa and had tucked up her legs. She had wrapped her arms around her legs and her chin was resting on her knees.

Alice was talking to her, they both kept their voices low. I looked in Bella's green eyes. They were melancholic and sad, but at least they didn't look as ... dead anymore. I made another step in her direction and this time she didn't flinch. "Are you feeling better yet?" I asked while I handed her the glass of cold water. She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. I am so sorry for taking your time, I shouldn't have overreacted like that," she apologized and managed to sound seriously contrite.

I sighed... She had got to be kidding me! She had had a complete breakdown because of _me_ and now _she_ was trying apologize... I just shook my head. "You know it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have gotten so close to you, I am very sorry for how I behaved Bella, I should have known better," I countered. Bella drank the whole glass and then handed it back to me. "Thank you, Carlisle," she thanked me sincerely. "You are very welcome," I answered and smiled at her.


	8. Organizing

Organizing

Saturday 11-16-11/8:25 a.m.

Esme's Pov.

"Thank you, Carlisle," Bella said. Her voice was soft and she still sounded a little bit weak. Even I was slightly worried about her heart. Of course, I was no professional, but it sounded different than most other hearts I had encountered. "You are very welcome," my husband answered. He was still trying to be careful, but he sounded just as sincere as Bella. For a few seconds, nobody spoke a word.

"Bella?" Carlisle asked hesitantly. "Yes?", Bella replied, waiting for his question. "Do you often get into that kind of ... situation?" he asked. I could hear that he had chosen his wording very carefully, in an attempt not to further upset her. Bella took a deep breath. "I suppose that depends on how you define 'often'," Bella answered, obviously trying to avoid his question. Well, no answer was an answer as well. The fact that she did not want to give us any exact numbers was a pretty clear sign that this by far wasn't the first time.

"Just... How often does it happen, Bella?" Carlisle sighed. "Not _that_ often, actually. A few years ago, t was a lot worse than now. It's ... um ... sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed with a situation and then my body starts shutting down. There really isn't much I can do about it once it starts. But that still doesn't answer your question." Bella paused and bit her lip. "Once every other month maybe? It's hard to tell, I don't keep track or anything. I was probably just slightly overwhelmed with moving across the Atlantic and not really knowing anyone and so on. And then you caught me off guard when you mentioned the scar." Carlisle nodded and it was quiet again.

"It was, um... It was an accident, the scars I mean. It's been a few years, but it made me think of when it happened. And well, here I am," Bella added. I knew that Carlisle had said that the scars didn't look like the result of an accident, but she sounded credible, so I believed her. Accidents could sometimes have a great impact on people's lives, so it definitely wouldn't be absurd if that had thrown her off the track.

I cleared my throat. "You know, I was going to look at the allocation of the rooms with you and the other new students today, but I don't think that that would be a good idea right now, so I'll just let the others know that we'll postpone that meeting," I announced. "Just give me a minute to notify the students." Bella tried to stop me immediately. "Oh, you don't have to do that. I don't want to mess up your entire schedule, just because I had a... short moment of weakness," she protested and got up, maybe with a little bit too much dash. She started to stagger and Carlisle had to catch her.

"I am pretty sure _short moment of weakness_ is the understatement of the day," Emmett muttered. I was also pretty sure that I had heard Bella mutter "And I am supposed to be a ballerina", but I wasn't completely sure. I shook my head. There was no way that the planned meeting was going to take place. Bella should get some more rest.

"I'll notify the other students now," I announced and walked towards the door. "No, I'm already on my way. I am absolutely fine. I would have to get a pair of shoes though, if that's okay," Bella insisted. She was now standing on her own two feet-although still slightly unsteady-and looked at her feet. She in fact was barefoot. I just smiled and shook my head. "You aren't going to give up, are you," I sighed. "No, probably not," she replied. "Alright then, we'll stop by your room and then we'll head to my office."

After she quickly got a pair of shoes out, we headed down to the first floor, where my office was located. When we arrived at the door, we were about five minutes late. I usually valued punctuality a lot, but Bella's health definitely was of a higher priority. We stepped into the room. The other three students were already there-I had told them to just go in, so they wouldn't have to awkwardly wait on the hallway. I pressed a button on the wall next to the door and a lamp on the hallway went on, signaling that I was busy and didn't want to be disturbed.

"Hello everybody, I am glad everybody came. I am very sorry for the short delay, but I had to discuss something very important," I apologized. "Take a seat, Bella," I said as I sat down behind the huge mahogany desk. Bella sat on one of the chairs opposite of me. I heard how one of the female students groaned. "We had to wait because of _her_?" she muttered, but of course, I could understand every word. "Miss Denali! Moderate your tone!" I rebuked her. Tanya had been going to this school for a year now and she had attracted negative attention several times already.

"So... Today we want to organize some rooming things. Two of you have a room on your own as for today and two of you are new. I hope we can find a way to assign the four beds in a way that everybody is happy with their partners. It is my job as principal that the students are doing well, so I need you to tell me if you are not okay with what we come up with. The assistant principal can't be here today, but I think we'll be fine without his help," I informed the students.

"Okay, Mrs Cullen," they all replied. "Okay, we'll get going then. Since you don't know each other: Tanya Denali, Mike Newton, Michelle Stevenson, and Isabella Swan. I suggest that you briefly introduce yourselves to the others first," I proposed. They just nodded. "Alright then, who wants to start?" Tanya immediately raised her hand. "I'll go first," she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. I didn't like this self-centered and extremely vain girl. "I am Tanya and I am originally from Alaska. I like makeup and shopping and I want to be a model some day. I've been here for a year," she introduced herself and fluttered her eyelashes. I sighed as silently as I could.

"Who's next?" I asked. Mike Newton raised his hand. "Me," he said. "My name is Mike Newton and I am actually from Forks, a native, so to speak," he announced and it seemed like he found the statement incredibly funny-and it really wasn't. "Um... I like baseball, football and basketball. I enjoy going to the movie theatre and I'd like to become a fitness instructor after high school. I'm 18 and new here," he finished. I nodded and looked in Michelle's direction. She cleared her throat.

"I am Michelle and I've been here for a little more than half a year. I like horses and shopping is fun too. I am 17 and I was born in Washington D.C., but my family is originally from around here. Not quite sure what I want to do after high school, but I'll definitely go to college." At least one person who didn't sound like a total goof-off. I didn't know Michelle well-she wasn't in any of my classes and she had never gotten in trouble, so I had only talked to her a couple of times so far. She seemed like a lovely young lady.

"Bella, it's your turn," I reminded her, when she didn't show the slightest inclinations to say something. "Oh, I'm sorry... My name is Isabella, but I actually prefer Bella. I was born in London in 1995, so I am 16 years old. I've lived in Switzerland ever since I was five-well, at least until two days ago. My dad is British and my mom is Swiss. I've been a ballet dancer for eleven years and I also play the piano and the violin, but I am not _that_ good at the ladder one. I also have a little sister and a cat in Switzerland. I actually always wanted to become a doctor, but I don't think that that's going to happen, so I'll probably study psychology and become a psychologist-just like my mom," she introduced herself, being a little more detailed than the other students.

I found it pretty ironic that _Bella_ , of all people, wanted to be a psychologist, but I could also see how she would be very good at it, considering how attentive she was. "What do you mean when you say that you can't be a doctor?" Michelle wanted to know. I smiled at her. Maybe she wasn't quite as shallow as I had thought at first. It was a really good question because I couldn't see any reason why Bella wouldn't be able to become a doctor. She definitely was smart enough and it didn't seem like there would be any financial problems either.

Bella sighed and seemed to be looking for the right words. "Um... Over the years, I spent a lot of time in various hospitals-not just because my dad is a doctor. I am a diabetic, have celiac disease and NLC, which is a neurodegenerative disorder that cannot be cured and it will end up killing me at some point or another, we just really don't know when that's going to be. When I was twelve, I, um... I had to spend almost 10 months with only minor breaks in the hospital and I don't have very good memories about that time. So, long story short, I spent so much time in hospitals that I'd really rather not spend another minute in one," she explained, a bit hesitantly.

Of course, I had already known about the state her health was in and I also knew that she wouldn't live to a very old age because of the NLC, but hearing it from her seemed to make it so much worse. Michelle also looked slightly shocked. The other two didn't make the impression that they were bothered by the story at all. Mike just continued smiling cheerfully. It was odd. I could feel how I was getting upset and angry about them, but I quickly had it under control. Not all people had the gift of being empathetic.

Bella shrugged. "I also think that there aren't enough good psychologists out there. My mom has always been one of my greatest role models. I want to help people, even though I can't be a doctor. Does that make sense?" Bella added. We all nodded. I knew what she was trying to say. Being a vampire definitely closed a lot of doors for me. Being very close to humans sometimes still was challenging for me, even after many decades. I would definitely never be a doctor, even though I liked the idea of being able to help people in ways that humans just couldn't. Carlisle had the strength that the rest of us didn't have and we admired him for it.

I took a deep breath. "Alright, so now that we know each other better. Does anyone know who they want to share a room with yet?" I asked, hoping that I could manage to make Michelle and Bella live together. Putting her in a room with either Tanya or Mike just seemed like a terrible idea. I was sure that Bella would never complain-she was much to decent and well-behaved to do that-but I felt like that would make it even worse. Michelle and Tanya looked at each other and nodded. "Me and Michelle will take one," she said conceitedly. Darn it! Now only Mike was left and I really was sure that I didn't want to make Bella live with him. He didn't seem very sensitive or polite and Bella would be much to decent to ever complain. I would definitely have to do something about that.

"Bella will be living in one of our guest rooms until the end of the week," I informed Mike. That would at least give me some time to figure out something.

"Bella, Mike; my husband wants to see you two later. He is the school doctor and we like to just do a brief check-up with all of our new students. It shouldn't take too long," I told them. "Should I come along or will you find his office?" I asked. Michelle answered. "I can show them," she volunteered and I gave her a appreciative smile. She really seemed to be much nicer than I had thought.


	9. A Resolution

A Resolution

Saturday 11-16-11/8:07 a.m.

Rosalie's Pov.

(While Carlisle is still in Bella's room)

I should hate her. I hadn't been this jealous of anybody on a really long time. This girl was everything I wanted. Everybody was only talking about her anymore. She was so _perfect_. She was the most beautiful human I had ever seen, and she was intelligent, friendly, musical and it seemed like her family was pretty affluent, as she had been going to an outrageously expensive private school in Switzerland. And it wasn't just that. What I envied her for most was her humanity-she could have children, which is something I wanted more than anything else, but would never have. All of those things were reasons why I should hate her. The problem was just that I _couldn't_. It seemed like she was too perfect.

Hating people wasn't usually something I struggled with. I had plenty of aversion for most people and I was positive that I didn't come across as an extraordinarily nice person usually. That didn't really bother me most of the time. I didn't see much of a point in establishing relationships with humans, when they would never be completely honest and we never really stayed in a place for many years, so it seemed like a pretty big waste of time. Bella was different though and I wasn't sure why that was.

I was convinced that behind the hard shell, there was a girl who was _not_ doing well at all. She might be though on the outside, but I trusted Jasper when he said that she was struggling. I wouldn't want to trade my life with hers. As I had already mentioned, there were a lot of things I envied her for, but it wasn't like any of them were up to her. She had been fortunate enough to be raised in a wealthy environment and I was sure that she had received the best education money could buy. Whether I wanted it or not-and I most definitely did _not_ -I somehow couldn't help feeling bad for her.

Carlisle was in Bella's room at the moment, to bring her some food. Gluten-free, of course. It looked pretty disgusting and the smell was terrible. Yikes... I was just glad that _I_ didn't have to eat any of it. Well, each to their own, even though I just couldn't imagine that the stuff actually tasted good. The apples and bananas weren't so bad, but the bread and crackers Esme had picked up at the grocery store earlier just smelled awful.

All of a sudden, the living room door was opened and a very stressed out looking Carlisle stepped in. Why did he look so harried? He usually was an extremely calm person and it took _a lot_ to actually stress him out. I took a closer look. He was holding something in his arms-no, not something, it was _someone..._ Now I heard the heartbeat and recognized the smell. It was Bella and she definitely did not look healthy in any way, to put it mildly. She was motionless and was feebly hanging in his arms, but her face still looked incredibly tense. What had he done to her? I gave him a bewildered look.

"Carlisle! What happened?" Esme asked. He sighed and laid Bella down on the sofa. "Um... I wanted to bring her the food, so she could eat something for breakfast," he started. He then went on to explain how he had spotted a scar on her forehead and wanted to know why it was there. Once, I heard Jasper mutter something along the lines of "it was only a matter of time", but other than that we were all completely silent, waiting for an explanation. Carlisle finished his description of what had happened in the guest room a few minutes earlier. For a few seconds, nobody said a word.

"I am a little worried about her heart," Carlisle said suddenly. I listened to the steady beat more closely. I technically was a doctor too, I had just never practiced. My profound knowledge about how the human body worked prove advantageous now. Or maybe not-Bella's heart _really_ didn't sound very healthy. It sounded rather weak and the beat was quite irregular, which clearly wasn't a good thing. I gave my father a worried look.

Suddenly, a strange feeling came over me. It did most definitely did not feel good. It was like Bella reminded me or something or someone, but I just couldn't figure out what or whom it was. She didn't seem to be much like anyone I knew, so I was surprised that I even felt that way. Then, all of a sudden it hit me. It was almost painful, how obvious it was. Bella reminded me of _myself_. Well, at least of the girl I was several decades ago. The 30s and 40s were a really hard time for me and even though Bella in no way acted the way I did, there were parallels. But what made her feel this way?

What if the same type of event had caused all of this? I didn't even want to think about it. She was only 16 after all... It certainly wasn't anything you would want anyone to experience, not even your worst enemies. I tried to force myself to think about something else-it wasn't even like we had any definite proof. But the harder I tried to ban the thought, the worse it got. It felt like this was 1933 all over again. I was suffering through all the pain once more. I couldn't think clearly anymore.

Carlisle said something, but I couldn't understand a single word. I just saw how his lips were moving, but the sound never arrived. I grabbed Emmett's arm and held it in a tight grip because all of a sudden, it didn't feel like my legs could support my weight, which was ridiculous, considering that I was a vampire and we were probably the strongest species on this entire planet. Emmett gave me a confused look. Then he must have spotted the expression on my face-I was sure that I did not look very relaxed at the moment-because he immediately looked worried. Very carefully, he loosened my firm grip so I wouldn't tear his shirt and put his arm around me. I could feel how Jasper was staring at me.

It felt like someone had just _turned off_ my brain. I couldn't think that there was chaos inside me. Emmett gently stroked my back. He was familiar with this type of situation and knew that it was sometimes better not to ask me about it, although I was sure that we would talk about it later. Slowly, I managed to calm down a little bit.

Then, after endless minutes, Bella opened her eyes. She still looked terrible. On one side, she was still stunning, but looked _dead_ in a way. Her skin was white as a sheet, almost gray, her heart was still beating in a very irregular rhythm and even her hair somehow looked lifeless, though I wasn't even sure how that was possible. It had lost all of the shine and dully fell over shoulders and back. Her eyes were lacking any type of expression. They were empty. It almost hurt to see her like this.

Her skin was slowly losing the grayish tone and now she was just white as chalk, maybe even as pale as I was. It was incredible how much she reminded me of myself. Her small frame was shaking. Bella claimed that she was fine, but none of us believed her. It was very obvious that that was not the case. When Carlisle took a step in her direction, she flinched and tried to hide behind mom. I heard a quiet whimper escape her lips.

That wasn't good for me. I tried to keep myself under control, but I just couldn't anymore. I clung to Emmett as if I was drowning and that's what it felt like. I couldn't breathe. Emmett held me in his arms and tried to calm me down, but it wasn't working. I clenched my teeth and tried not to have a complete break-down, as that would most definitely not improve the current situation. Emmett grew increasingly worried. Jasper had fled the room a while ago, so I at least didn't have to worry about him and it looked like Alice had left to look for him.

Bella had more in common with me than I had thought (or _hoped_ maybe?). Much more.

I could feel how my entire perspective changed. There was absolutely no way I could hate her now and I didn't even want to anymore. Instead, I could feel an urge to support her and help her in any way I possibly could. Suddenly, she didn't seem like an enemy I had to fight anymore. I knew that I had not treated her well so far and that was not okay. A sense of overwhelming guilt came over me.

At that moment, I swore to myself, that I would never treat her this badly anymore. Bella had just involuntarily shown me what an ignorant, self-centered Idiot I was. She had changed me-Carlisle always said that finding a mate was the only thing that could fundamentally change an vampire's way of thinking, but it seemed like he had been wrong all along. Or maybe it just wasn't finding a mate that changed a vampire, maybe it was love. Of course, Emmett would always be the only man in my life and I didn't see Bella that way, but I did feel something like love for her. The longer I thought about it, the clearer it became. They say it's a fine line between love and hate, and my dislike for Bella had disappeared.

Suddenly, I could understand how my family had taken Bella into their hearts so quickly. Until now, it had always seemed ridiculous to me, how they could care so much about a virtual stranger, but now it seemed obvious. Bella was endearing. She deserved to be loved. It was unequivocal. I would definitely have to thank her for making me understand this someday. I owed her.

I was still holding on to Emmett's arm very tightly when I noticed that Carlisle was staring at me worriedly. He kept looking back and forth between Bella and me. It looked like he had drawn the same conclusions. He had also seen the parallels between the two of us. He furrowed his brow and turned to Alice, who had returned by now. He asked her to talk to Bella, keeping his voice low enough so she wouldn't hear a single word. Slowly, my sister approached Bella. It didn't seem to bother her.

Dad quietly left the room. "How are you feeling?" I asked her, trying to make my voice sound calm. I felt incredibly guilty for the way I had treated her yesterday. Why had I been so rude? She had never done anything to upset me... "Better," she replied. "I am sorry for wasting so much of your time. I shouldn't have overreacted. I shouldn't have let it get out of control." Her voice sounded so guilty-it was almost ridiculous because obviously, none of this was her fault. She definitely didn't have to apologize, but she did anyway. The girl had manners!

"You look very tense, Rosalie. Is everything alright?" she asked me and sounded sincerely concerned. "I'm fine. You gave us a real scare there for a minute. We were all worried about you and it also definitely reminded me of something that I'd rather not think about," explained, figuring that lies wouldn't get me very far with Bella. She nodded. "Oh, I know Rosalie," she said and her voice sounded sad. That was odd-there was no way that she knew what had happened. Was I missing something? What did she know? How much did she know? I knew that she was very observant, but that there was no way that she could figure out a significant amount of things in such a short time.

Would she be a danger to our family? Maybe-if we kept spending time with her, it wouldn't take her long to get behind our secrets. Was that a problem? Well, definitely. Would that stop me from trying to support her? No, not at all. I'd try to have her back no matter what happened and I was sure that my family felt the same way

Bella carefully sat up and pulled her naked feet closer to her body. I could tell just from her feet that she was a dancer. She had calluses and her feet were slightly deformed. They weren't exactly pretty, but what she with them was beautiful. I was sure that she put a lot of time and effort into dancing. It made me curious-I'd definitely have to ask her to dance for me someday.

 **Hello everyone! Thank you very much for reading and thank you to those of you who added the story to your favorites! I really appreciate it!**

 **Just FYI: I'll be on a school trip all of next week, so it might take a while until I find some time to continue writing. This school year is slowly coming to an end and everything is more than stressful at the moment (anyone want to write a 20-page term paper on communism in literature for me?). So sorry for the delays!**


	10. Doctor's Appointment

Doctor's Appointment

Saturday 11-16-11/9:02 a.m.

Carlisle's Pov.

Someone knocked on my door. I got up to let in my visitors. I heard the sound of three thumping hearts, which confused me, as I was only expecting two students (and maybe Esme to show them the way to my office). I opened the door and saw Bella, Michelle, whom I had seen before, but didn't know particularly well and a boy I had never seen before. Michelle was saying goodbye, it seemed like she had just walked them here. The two teenagers looked a little unsure of what they were supposed to do next. I gave them an encouraging smile.

"Good morning, Carlisle," Bella said. She laughed. "Although, I just saw you half an hour ago." I sighed, thinking back at the eventful morning we had had so far. "Hello Bella. And you are?" I asked, turning to the boy. "Good morning, Dr Cullen. I am Mike. Mike Newton," he said and managed to somehow sound unfriendly. "Good morning Mike. It's very nice to meet you. Are you from around here? I know a few Newtons here in town?" I asked. He nodded. "Um, yeah, my parents own the sporting goods store outside of town," he replied. I laughed. "Forks really is a small town..."

"Come in then," I invited them. They stepped into my office. "Okay, so who wants to go first?" I asked. They both didn't react for a second, then Bella hesitantly volunteered. I furrowed my brow. "Actually, if I think about this, it might be better if Mike starts. I feel like this will take a while with you," I sighed. She nodded, but looked... well, annoyed wasn't the right word, but she looked like she had been in this exact situation way too many times. I did understand her. I was sure that she had probably been through more check-ups in 16 years than most people in 60. "Okay, that's fine with me," Mike said. I nodded. "You can take a seat, Bella. It won't take long." She sat down on the sofa and smiled.

When Mike and I left the exam and treatment room that was adjacent to my office, Bella was standing in front of the bookshelf. She was looking at the titles on the spines. "Bella, your turn," I informed her. She spun around. It seemed like she hadn't heard us coming back in. "Goodbye Mike. Have a good day", I dismissed the young man. He left.

"I think my dad actually owns a lot of those books too. Some look pretty familiar," she said. "Yeah, those are all the essential anatomy books and encyclopedias. I have a small library upstairs, where I keep all the books that I don't need as frequently," I explained, not mentioning that those same books had come in handy just last night. We went over to the other room and started the check-up. After I had listened to her chest, checked blood pressure, and measured her height and weight, it was time for the more uncomfortable part of this conversations.

"So... I took a closer look at your record yesterday and it looked like there might be some things that we should discuss. I will just start at the top," I started, looking at the record in front of me. "It says that you suffer from some allergy-related stuff. What exactly are you allergic against and how severe are the allergies?" I asked. She answered almost immediately. It was obvious that she was an experienced patient because she gave me all the information I needed right away. "Well, it's just hay fever, really. It usually bothers me mostly in May and June, but I'm not sure if it will even be a problem around here, as the vegetation is completely different. And even if not, it's nothing that needs treatment," she explained.

"Okay... Next, it says that you have neurodermatitis. For how long have you had it and what parts of your body are most affected?" "Well, mostly my upper arms and the back of my knees. I had some eczema in my face for a while, but it's been at least three years. I'm pretty sure I've had it ever since I was a baby, but it has definitely gotten better over time. Right now, for example, I am fine. I just have occasional outbreaks, especially when temperatures change dramatically. My dermatologist gave me a cortisone-containing ointment for whenever it gets bad, but I try not to use it very often." I nodded. That was a sensible approach.

I sighed. "That would take us to the more serious things. We'll start with celiac disease. When were you diagnosed?" Bella shrugged. "I think that I was diagnosed at the age of five. I get the normal digestive problems and whenever I accidentally eat gluten I get rashes." She grabbed a small black bag that she had been carrying with her the whole time. She opened it and pulled out a white box. "My doctor gave me those. It's an anti-inflammatory drug to help with the rashes." I nodded and inspected the box more closely. I knew the drug and didn't have any objections.

"Alright, we discussed that then. We'll do diabetes next. You suffer from type 1 diabetes. Is that correct?" I asked. She nodded. "Yes, that's right. They first diagnosed me when I was 13, so the onset was rather late." She showed me her glucose meter and the other equipment, which she also stored in the small bag that she, as she explained, almost always had with her. I appreciated her as a patient. We were moving along faster than I had expected, which was convenient for both of us. I took a deep breath.

"Okay, were almost done. We still have neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, more specifically Kufs Disease left. I have to admit that I am not an expert in that field, but I know that it's a very severe genetic disorder. Is it correct that you have type 3 NLC?" I asked her. She nodded. "Yes, but it seems to be new subtype. I've seen a lot of specialists and they all say that it's most likely a form of Kufs Disease, but it also seems to be different. That makes it very hard to predict, but the doctors are pretty sure that the onset will be later than usual. It is still fatal, but I guess I am lucky, if that's a word you can use in this context," she explained quickly. Bella was, from a medical point of view, definitely a very interesting case.

"There isn't really any medication, as far as I know, so we can't do much, right?" I asked. She shrugged. "Yeah, that's the problem with it. We'll need to watch it, but there isn't anything I can do to stop it." That must be a horrible feeling, knowing that something terrible is coming, but not being able to do anything about it. Especially for a young girl like Bella. She was supposed to have her whole life ahead of her, yet she knew that everything could end quite suddenly. That must be grueling.

"That's all I have on your record. Do you want to add anything?" I asked. She shook her head. "Good. I still have a couple of things though. First, you are underweight for your age and height, but I am sure that you are aware of that." Bella nodded. "I am. I've always been on the lighter side and I always struggle to put on weight, but I try."

"Alright, I'll try not to bother you about it too much, but I definitely want to keep an eye on it. Another thing I wanted to discuss was... I discovered some pretty distinct burn scars earlier. Where do those come from?" It was pretty clear from her facial expression that this was the exact question she had hoped I wouldn't ask. "There was... an incident... when I was twelve. I do not recall what exactly happened, but I know that it involved gasoline and a burning cigarette and that I was pretty close, so I spent a significant amount of time at the hospital." I closed my eyes. This just kept getting worse. How could a single person be as unlucky as Bella? "Well, that most definitely doesn't sound like anything I'd like to experience... But I am sure that the scars healed off just fine, so they won't be of importance for me."

"One last thing," I said and sighed. "I am sure that you've been through this a bunch of times already and I really don't want to bother you, but would you mind coming to the hospital with me? Your health record is rather unusual and I have to admit that I am a bit worried about you, so I'd like to get some basic blood work done, just to get a better overview. I'd also like to take a closer look at your heart. It seemed fine now, but when you lost consciousness earlier, there were some pretty severe irregularities and I really don't want to miss anything that might be important," I explained. Bella sighed but nodded. "Sure," she agreed. "Let's go then," I announced, but it somehow sounded... tired. I was feeling exhausted, which was an odd sensation. I hadn't felt this way in almost a hundred years, when I changed Esme and wasn't sure if she was going to survive. Bella smiled. "Let me just grab my coat, then I'm ready to go," she said.


	11. The Incarnation Of A Mystery

The Incarnation Of A Mystery

Saturday 11-16-11/9:20 a.m.

Carlisles Pov.

(At the hospital)

"Well, we're here," I informed Bella, when I parked my black Mercedes in my usual spot in the hospital parking lot. Bella looked at me. "Okay, let's get this done then." I pulled the key from the ignition and got out of the car. Bella followed my example. It was drizzling lightly. Quickly we walked towards the entrance. Neither of us spoke a word. While we were on our way, Bella pulled a hair tie and a few bobby pins out of the pockets of her jeans and tied up her hair. I was amazed at how fast she managed to pull her waist-long hair into a perfect bun. It made her look older. Much more mature.

When we walked past the reception desk, Sally, the lady who worked there, greeted us. She was a very warm-hearted person. I liked her. "Good morning you two. I didn't know that you were working today, Carlisle," she said, obviously confused by my unexpected appearance. "Well, technically I am not. I'm here on a private mission, just taking Bella here to a quick check-up," I explained. "Alright then. See you folks later," Sally smiled. She was truly asset for this small town hospital. Such a kind woman.

I guided Bella through the rather small clinic to my office. There we both took a seat. "So, let's see... As I said earlier, I'll have some blood work done and I'd actually like to see if your cardiologist can find some time for you. Are you okay with that?" Bella nodded, but she understandably didn't look too excited about the upcoming tests. "Yeah, that's fine." I got up to get all the equipment to draw some blood. "I'll draw some blood first, as it'll take some time for the results to come back. Could you pull up your sleeve a little bit?" I requested. Bella did as she was told and rucked up the sleeve of her wool sweater.

"I suppose you must be getting tired of all the pricking. Do you have any idea how many times you've had your blood drawn by now? Must be an impressive figure." Bella chuckled. "I honestly have no idea. I stopped counting a very long time ago. Even if you don't count all the diabetes-related testing, I am guessing that the number is still pretty high. I'm not even sure if I want to know." She sighed. "Well, I am very sorry for adding another time." She sighed. "You shall be forgiven."

I quickly looked for a vein and inserted the needle. Then I waited until a sufficient amount of blood was in the vial. I really wanted this to be as quick and painless as possible. I withdrew the needle and pressed a little ball of cotton on her arm to avoid bruising and stop the bleeding. "Alright, we're done with the first part," I announced. "Can you hold the cotton for another minute of two? I'll just take this to the lab, alright?" Bella nodded. "Sure, no problem," she replied, friendly as always. This was Bella. On the outside she was just perfect-pretty, well-behaved, smart and very loveable.

Bella leaned back on her chair and I grabbed the vial of blood and went on my way to the lab, which was located in the basement on the other side of the small hospital. Halfway there I met my boss and best human friend-Peter Snow. He ran the hospital and was a very compassionate person. We happened to have a lot of common interests and developed a real friendship over the past couple of years.

"Oh, Carlisle! I didn't know you were working today," Peter said and he sounded seriously confused. "Well, neither did I, this wasn't planned. Do you have a minute? I think this could definitely be of interest for you," I said, pointing to the vial of blood and Bella's file. He raised his eyebrows. "You _think_ I could find it interesting? Why?" I sighed. "Actually, Peter, I _know_ that you will enjoy this," I replied. "Well, now I am curious." Peter specialized in endocrinology (and was therefore very familiar with everything diabetes brought with it) and he had done some research on neurodegenerative disorders when he was younger and was still very interested in them. As NCL fell into that category of diseases, I might be able to profit from his expertise. "What makes this case so special?" he asked. I sighed. "I need to drop this off at the lab, but I can explain on the way. Do you think you have a spare minute?" He nodded. "Things have been pretty calm today and I don't think anyone's dying at the moment, so I suppose it should be fine."

When we reached the laboratory, I handed the vial to Dr. Miller, the responsible doctor, and asked her to do all the necessary blood work. Then I turned to Peter, to explain the situation while we were waiting for the results. "Alright then. The patient is diabetic and suffers from celiac disease. That in itself is pretty interesting already, but the most extraordinary part is yet to come," I started and Peter raised his eyebrows. "You did a lot of research on genetic neurodegenerative disorders when you were younger, right?", I asked. He nodded slowly. "Have you heard of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis or Kufs' disease then?" I continued. His eyes widened. "NLC? Are you kidding me?" he asked. His voice was full of disbelief. I nodded. "I haven't seen a case in ages! And you said the patient also suffers from diabetes and celiac disease? What an unlucky person!"

I furrowed my brow. "She definitely didn't hit the genetic jackpot... But yes, she is an NLC patient and she actually said that it doesn't align with the conventional classifications. That makes it even less predictable, but she said that most doctors thought that it might increase her chances of living past 30. She seems to see it as a gift, but it must be hard, living in the knowledge that her life won't be very much longer," I explained. Peter looked thoughtful.

"Who is that patient? Is she new to the area? Because I'm sure that I would have heard of her if she had lived around here for a while," I bit my lip. "I probably shouldn't go into detail. Confidentiality and such, you know..." Peter smirked. "Not if you consult me for medical advice. That actually might not be such a bad idea because I am actually an expert in her field." I chuckled. Peter always knew how to get his way and I figured that letting another person in on this rather complicated case might actually be to Bella's benefit. "I guess that's worth being considered... You're right, she's new to the town-just moved here a couple of days ago. She's a new student at the school. And well, she's upstairs in my office. Would you like to meet her?" Peter nodded enthusiastically.

"Let me just get the results back, then we can go," I promised. A few seconds later, Dr. Miller handed me the sheet with all the test results. I took it and thanked her. "Doesn't look too good," she added before going back into her laboratory. Peter and I made our way back to my office. "Before we go in, a few things," I said when we reached the door. "Please don't stare, that seems to make her anxious. She also is startled pretty easily, so try not to make any unexpected movements and keep a distance. The reason we're here today is that she had a complete break-down after I accidentally scared her this morning." He furrowed his brow, but then he nodded. "Alright, I can do that."

I carefully opened the door and we stepped into the room. Bella didn't seem to notice us coming in. She stood with her back to the door, looking at the books on my shelf. "Bella?", I asked carefully, as not to startle her yet again. She suddenly wheeled around. I felt how Peter froze. He must have been taken aback by her appearance. "Sorry, I didn't "hear you come back in," she apologized quickly. "Why are you sorry?" I asked, a little bit confused. "This really shouldn't have scared me. It's ridiculous." She actually managed to sound guilty. "Oh, no problem, we didn't mean to frighten you. May I introduce you to Peter Snow? He is a colleague and good friend of mine," I presented. Her eyes flashed.

"Isabella Swan. It's very nice to meet you Dr Swan. You are the chief physician, right?" she asked. "Yes, that is correct. How did you know?" Peter wanted to know. He gave me a confused glance, but I just shrugged. I had no clue why Bella knew him. At least, I hadn't told her about him. Bella smiled at our surprised exchange. "I don't know Peter... She just seems to have a way of magically knowing things. She keeps doing it, so I'd just go with it," I said and shrugged. Bella laughed. "No magic involved. Actually, my father checked who was in charge before I came here. He is the chief physician at our local hospital back in Switzerland."

Peter pondered on that for a few seconds. "Swan..." he mumbled. "Wait, is your father Charles Swan?" he asked in a reverent voice. Charles Swan... The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember why. Bella nodded. "Yes, that is my father. Do you know him?" she wanted to know. "Well, not personally-I wish-but he is a brilliant surgeon." Bella smiled and I finally remembered why the name sounded so familiar.


	12. Just When You'd Think It Couldn't Get

**Imma be honest. This chapter is super short and does not reveal anything, yet I still thought it to be important enough to keep it in the story. There will be more information in the next chapter, so bear with me. Also, sorry that it took me forever to translate less than 600 words.**

 **On a brighter note - thanks for all the nice reviews and I am impressed with how many people actually seem to read this. You're awesome!**

* * *

Just When You'd Think It Couldn't Get Any Worse

Saturday 11-16-11/9:49 a.m.

Carlisle's Pov.

We had talked for a few more minutes, until Peter had to get back to work. I turned back to Bella after he left my office. "Alright Bella. The results are back, but I haven't really looked at them yet. I also still want get your heart checked out a little more thoroughly. I think it'd be best if we let our heart specialist take a look. What do you think?" I asked. Of course, I could do it myself, but we had a heart specialist, so we might as well let her do her work. "That's fine with me," Bella answered quietly.

I went ahead and called Dr. Whiterdale, to make sure that she had time for Bella. We were lucky and she didn't have any appointments coming up until 11. "Okay, we're good. She has a spot free for you. Let's go," I announced and Bella followed me out the door. Carola Whiterdale was still pretty young and she was a wonderful person and cardiologist. We all very dearly appreciated her as a colleague. She was easy to work with and I was sure that she would get along with Bella.

On our way, I started looking over the results from the blood test. I was just going to skim them to get an overview, but sighed when I saw how bad they were. It wasn't that one specific value was horrible, but they _all_ weren't ideal, which made things a little more complicated. I sighed. "What are we going to do with you..." I murmured and Bella shrugged. Just when I was about to take my eyes off the paper, something caught my eye and I winced. I looked back at the paper quickly. Didn't is say...? I was trying to find it again. Where had it been? But really, that couldn't possibly be right. I really couldn't imagine that - but there it was. Black on white.

But this really wasn't possible. This was not the way things were supposed to go today. They must have made a mistake down in the laboratory. Something was wrong here - very, very wrong. This just couldn't really be true. It was not possible... Bella was...

Then it hit me. The insight hit me with the force of a huge wrecking ball. I stopped walking. Of course - everything made sense. It fit, like a puzzle that had been missing a piece all along. We had already been aware that there were obviously some things we didn't know about Bella, but this made me realize how much we really were missing. In fact, it now seemed like Bella was a puzzle herself. However, most of the pieces hadn't yet been put into place and we were also missing some of them completely. She was a puzzle that could not be completed.

But this wasn't just a single puzzle piece. It was no irrelevant fact and I couldn't ignore it, but I also knew that it was part of something much bigger. It was like I had just discovered a whole new continent, yet I didn't know what was behind those mountains I had spotted and where I should start surveying the unknown territory.

Bella looked at me, obviously confused as to why I had so suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway. I continued walking and didn't say anything. I needed to think things over first.


	13. News

_I'm finally back with another chapter! I am so very sorry that it took me this long, but life's been incredibly busy lately. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. I really appreciate them all!_

 **News**

 _Saturday 11-16-11/6:37 p.m._

 _Esme's Pov._

Carlisle stepped inside the living room. He had brought Bella back home around noon and had then gone back to the hospital to work for a few hours, even though didn't have to. He had worked all afternoon and looked strangely drained and exhausted - even though he couldn't be physically tired because he wasn't human. I walked over to him and he gave me a smile. A warm sensation spread through my chest. His smile did seem genuine, but I still had a feeling that it was also a bit forced.

"You had a long day at work," I said because the silence made me uncomfortable. "Yes, I am sorry for being gone all day, love." He sighed. "I have to do it," he added in a low voice. "Do what?" I asked, a little confused by the statement. He looked at me. "I need to help her. I won't watch her slowly lose all her senses and watch her die a slow and horrible death. I can't do that," Carlisle whispered and then lowered his eyes again. For a little while, he didn't move. Then he energetically shook his head. "We need to talk, Esme. There are news."

I looked at him critically. He worried me. "Bad ones, I assume?" I asked, not actually wanting to know. Carlisle sighed. "Not exclusively, but yes... Can you gather the rest of the family?" I bit my lip. "Sure, honey, but why? Do you really think it's good for them? Alice is already feeling so low because of the whole story. I mean, I do absolutely think that you can make responsible decisions on your own, but it just breaks my heart to see her so sad. She's such a happy girl usually, but I really don't know how to make her feel better now," I asked. Carlisle thought about what I had just said.

"You know, I'm not sure if we can do without her. I'd like to have Rosalie here too, but the others don't have to come if they don't want. Let them know I have news though. I think they might be interested to hear them," he answered after a few seconds. Why he wanted to talk to Alice I could understand - he probably wanted a glimpse into the future - but what role Rosalie played in all of this I really couldn't figure out. She had never even had anything to do with Bella... I decided to just go ahead and find the others. I'd see later what he needed our daughters for.

I stepped out of living room and walked down the hall. In front of Alice and Jasper's room I stopped to knock on the door. No reaction. I knocked a little louder and listened. I could hear that they were in the room, but they seemed to completely ignore me. "I am coming in now," I announced, as it didn't look like they were going to open the door anytime soon. "Okay okay, I'm coming," I could hear Alice's voice calling and the door swung open. Alice looked at me curiously, but the usual spark wasn't there.

"Carlisle has news. He said that he needed to see you, but Jasper can of course come too if he'd like to," I informed them quickly. "He's in the living room." Alice nodded. "Okay, we'll be there in a minute." I smiled at her and turned around to get Rosalie. In front of her and Emmett's room I stopped again. I knocked on the white door and Rosalie opened it after a couple of seconds. She looked slightly annoyed. "Yeah?" she asked, almost a bit impatient. "Carlisle needs to talk you in the living room. If Emmett wants to come to, he should feel free to do so, but it's not absolutely necessary," I explained.

"Does he have news?" Rosalie asked and I nodded. "Yes. I'm not sure what exactly he wants to tell you, but it seems like something is _very_ wrong. I feel like he's trying to solve a problem that just can't be solved. It hurts to see him suffer," I explained and Rosalie gave me a sad smile. "I think we'd all prefer him to not worry this much, but that's just the way he is, Esme. I'm sure it will all be fine... Things will work out somehow - or at least that's what I hope." I gave her a hug. "Thanks Rosalie," I thanked her quietly. "What for?" She sounded surprised. "For caring about me," I explained. She sighed. "No reason to thank me, Mom. You know we all love you," she protested and made me smile. I saw them all as my kids and loved it when they called me their mom.

Rosalie turned to Emmett. "Are you coming too?" she asked. He nodded. "Of course, I wouldn't want to miss anything, especially not if it might be important! What did you think?" he said, pretending to be absolutely outraged about the question. Rosalie stuck her tongue out at him and they both chuckled. That definitely lifted my mood and I decided to check on Edward. I could hear him playing the piano - Chopin, as far as I could tell. I went down the hall and knocked on his door. He didn't seem to notice me, which wasn't a very big surprise. He could be pretty absent when he was making music. I just shrugged and knocked again, but he still didn't react.

I sighed and just entered the room without his permission. He hated when people _intruded into his personal space_ , as he liked to call it, but he really didn't give me another choice. Carefully, I pushed open the door and stepped inside. He had apparently still not noticed me because he just kept playing without even batting an eye. I slowly walked towards him. When I was about two feet away, I stopped. After a little while, I put my hand on his shoulder, to finally get his attention. Startled, he spun around and looked at me with his eyes wide open. I started laughing.

"You shouldn't be this absent-minded when you play the piano," I smiled. "What?" He still seemed a little confused. "I told you to be a bit more attentive. You didn't notice that I knocked twice and then I stood right next to you for more than half a minute which you also didn't seem to be aware of," I told him, still laughing. He shook his head. "You really scared me there, mom," he said and I ruffled his hair. "Hey! What was that for? You ruined my hair," he complained and grabbed my hand. "Edward, you hair doesn't look any different than it did a minute ago." He bit his lip. "Right..."

"Well, the reason I came here in the first place is that Carlisle has news that..." He interrupted me, probably reading my thoughts. "Alright, I'll come too. Let's go." Together we made our way back to the living room. My euphoria proved to be rather short-lived because I could already feel all my worries come back and it seemed like Edward was feeling just like me. We entered the room and I could feel how Carlisle gave me a worried look. He came over to me and gave me a hug. "Are you alright, sweetheart?" he asked. I nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I'm just a bit nervous."

"I heard there are news?" Emmett asked. Carlisle sighed. "Yes, I do. Thank you all for coming. I'll start with the good ones. Is that okay?" We all nodded. "Alright... I took Bella to the hospital this morning and had her heart checked out. Dr Whiterdale said that everything was perfectly normal. She wasn't 100% sure what caused the arrhythmia earlier today, but she thought that the scare probably threw her heart off track. On a less positive note, she is definitely underweight and I'll have to see if I can make her gain a few pounds. A weight of less than 100 pounds at a height of 5'5'' isn't healthy and we'll have to get it under control, but that's not really what shocked me."

Carlisle took a deep breath. "I had her blood checked because I didn't want to miss anything. I dropped of the blood samples and met Peter down at the lab. We talked for a couple of minutes and after I got the results back, I introduced him to Bella. I still hadn't looked at the results at all, when I took Bella to the cardiologist's office. On our way there I scanned through them and something caught my eye. I actually had to look at it again because I really didn't believe it the first time I saw it. It just seemed so improbable and it still is unreal to me, but test was unequivocal." For a while we were all silent. "It just changes the whole situation so much..." Carlisle sighed.

"So... what did it say?" Emmett wanted to know. My husband sighed. "Well, Bella... she is... Hang on, I'll let you see it for yourselves," he said and rushed out of the room, probably to get the paper with the test results from his office. What could be this bad? Carlisle didn't usually struggle for words, but this really seemed to worry him a lot. Something was very wrong here. What could it be? Another disease that nobody had diagnosed so far? Were her blood values worse than he had expected? Did this further lower her life expectancy? Was he afraid that there wouldn't be enough time for him to safe her? I was no expert in the field of medicine, but even I could see that this was going to be bad. After a few moments, Carlisle came back with a sheet of paper in his right hand - the lab results, I assumed.

It was strange. To me, it looked like any other paper, yet I knew that this single sheet had obviously had a big impact on Carlisle and probably even more so on Bella. It appeared to be perfectly normal, but then it also seemed to radiate a certain kind of power over all of us. It was almost scary. "She's like a puzzle with lots and lots of missing pieces and it seems like this is a very big one," he said, as he handed the test results to Edward, who had held out his hand. He carefully took it and gave it a look that could best be described as reverent. He started reading though it. I watched his eyes move over the lines of letters and numbers, until he suddenly stopped. "Oh," he said and looked at Carlisle. He seemed both surprised and confused at the same time.

Emmett looked over his brother's shoulder to catch a glimpse of the results. He furrowed his brow. "What?" he said after a couple of seconds. Nobody said anything for a while. "What is this supposed to tell me?" Emmett asked. Edward looked at him.

"She is pregnant."

That was all he said. 3 words, but they changed everything. How was this possible? Of course, I knew that teenage pregnancies weren't uncommon, but still... She was only 16, for goodness sake! I couldn't imagine that she had wanted this to happen. There had to be more behind this. I knew that teenage pregnancy rates were very low in Europe and she came from a rather wealthy background and had gone to one of the most prestigious schools in the world. She wasn't the type of girl to become pregnant in high school. This had to be more than just an accident.

I looked around the living room to see what the rest of the family made of the information. I could hear how Emmett very quietly said a number of curse words. Alice and Jasper both didn't seem sure what to think about this - a feeling that I could understand very well. Edward looked a bit overwhelmed, but Rosalie was the person who surprised me the most. Unlike the rest of us, she seemed to be overcome with insight. It confused me, as Rosalie hadn't shown any interest in Bella so far. In fact, she hadn't treated her very nicely either, so it seemed strange for her to be the one to make sense of all of this.

After a few more seconds of silence - ignoring Emmett's continuous stream of profanities, Rosalie cleared her throat. "She is pregnant?" she asked and her voice sounded distant. I felt like she was hoping to have misunderstood Edward. Carlisle nodded. "Yes," he replied. "How far along is she?" I asked. My voice was barely more than a whisper, but they all were able to hear me. "Around four weeks, I believe," he answered. Suddenly, something hit me. "But that's almost exactly when she accepted our offer! She called on October 24th to tell me she had changed her mind. That's about three and a half weeks ago!," I blurted out without thinking.

"I noticed too and this is exactly what worries me so much. Of course, it could all be a big coincidence, but I am pretty sure that it isn't. You have to admit that that seems improbable at most," Carlisle said. "I don't understand..." Alice muttered. I knew how she felt. Did any of us really understand what this meant? This new piece of information had seemed to make the whole situation even more complex than it had already been. Suddenly, Rosalie sighed.

"Come on! Don't you see? There must be a reason why Bella would all of a sudden want to come here. One does not spontaneously decide to move to the other side of the world without a reason. What could have made her leave her home? I'm sorry to have to say this, but coming from her school to ours is a pretty sharp decline. She left behind all friends and family head over heels. Bella does not seem like somebody who would make such a big decision without thinking about all the consequences. She might be spontaneous and adaptable, but she wouldn't make such rash decisions without having a real reason. This is where the pregnancy comes into play," Rosalie said. This did not make it any less confusing.


	14. Like a Sister

_I am finally back with a new chapter! I'm sorry it took me so long, but life has been incredibly busy lately... Thank you for the kind reviews - I really appreciate them! Hope everybody had a merry christmas and see you in 2018_

* * *

 **Like a Sister**

 _Saturday 11-16-11/7:16 p.m._

 _Emmett's Pov._

We had all been called to the living room, but none of us really knew, what was going us, so we were a little tense. I didn't like to be kept in the dark about things that were obviously important. "I heard you have news?" I asked and Carlisle sighed and nodded. He went on to explain that Bella was alright. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her heart, which was definitely good news and I was relieved. He also told us that Bella was pretty severely underweight, but it wasn't like that was something any of us had had any doubts about. One only had to catch a glimpse of Bella's tiny figure to realize that putting on a few pounds would do her a lot of good.

Carlisle hesitated. He was clearly nervous, which in turn worried me. He told us the whole story of how he picked up her lab results and brought her to the cardiologist's office while looking over them. He struggled for words, which was very unusual for Carlisle. He was probably the calmest and most thoughtful person I had ever met and I was reasonably sure that I had never seen him lost for words. He was stuttering and it was bewildering to see him like that. After several failed attempts at explanations, he eventually gave up and went to his office to just show us the paper with the mysterious results.

When he came back, Edward demanded to have a look at it and Carlisle handed him the paper. My brother carefully looked at all the different blood values and for a few seconds, he didn't seem to see anything out of the ordinary. Then his eyes suddenly stopped moving and he furrowed his brow. "Oh" was all he managed to say. I was slowly getting irritated with them. Could it really be this hard to just let the rest of us know what was going on. I had never been the most patient person, and my impatience made it hard for me to stay calm.

I gave up and went over to my brother to see if I could by any chance figure out what was going on myself. He was still holding the paper in his hands, so I tried to look over his shoulders, but it just looked like a random compilation of numbers and letters. How could they read anything from this? I tried to look at it again, without success. "What?" I finally asked. Nobody even tried to explain. "What is this supposed to tell me?" I specified and Edward looked at me gravely. He took a deep breath. "She is pregnant."

It felt like my head had started spinning. Pregnant? Bella? Was this some kind of distasteful joke? I closed me eyes. It couldn't be - Carlisle wasn't one to make fun of situations like this one. I was starting to feel sick. "Damn" I muttered and saw how Esme gave me a brief condemning look. For a few moments, we were all taken aback by Edward's words. We had most definitely not expected _this_. I had assumed that it was going to be bad, but it would never have crossed my mind that Bella, of all people, could be pregnant.

I looked over to Rose to see what she was making of this and was staggered to find out that she was probably the least confused of all of us. In fact, she looked like she wasn't very surprised at all. I couldn't stop myself from quietly muttering profanities. How was I supposed to deal with this kind of information? And what did Rosalie understand that the rest of us didn't? How could she stay so ... composed? I took her hand and gently squeezed. She looked at me, but then turned to the others.

"She is pregnant?" Rose asked. There was almost no emotion in her voice. Did she really care this little about Bella? Did she not care how this girl's world had just been flipped upside down? I had noticed that Rosalie didn't seem to care much about Bella, but could she really be this cold? Or was I just missing something? Was she hoping that she had misunderstood Edward? More and more questions kept popping into my head.

Carlisle nodded and Esme asked how far along she was. The news seemed to have hit her hard and she looked upset. "Around four weeks, I believe" Carlisle answered. I could see how Esme thought about the new piece of information for just a fraction of a second, then she suddenly stopped and looked at her husband. "But that's almost exactly when she accepted our offer! She called on October 24th to tell me she had changed her mind. That's about three and a half weeks ago!," she said. This confused me even more. What did this have to do with the pregnancy? None of this made any sense to me.

To my surprise, Carlisle agreed and said something about how it would be too big of a coincidence - I didn't really see how it would be - and how he was worried about it. Alice finally muttered that she didn't understand either, which reassured me a little bit. At least, I didn't seem to be the only one who couldn't make any sense of all the things that had been said in the past few minutes. It was driving me crazy. Suddenly, Rose let go of my hand and sighed.

"Come on! Don't you see?" she said. "There must be a reason why Bella would all of a sudden want to come here. One does not spontaneously decide to move to the other side of the world without a reason. What could have made her leave her home? I'm sorry to have to say this, but coming from her school to ours is a pretty sharp decline. She left behind all friends and family head over heels. Bella does not seem like somebody who would make such a big decision without thinking about all the consequences. She might be spontaneous and adaptable, but she wouldn't make such rash decisions without having a real reason. This is where the pregnancy comes into play."

I gave her a bewildered look. What did she mean? Carlisle bit his lip, then he seemed to understand what she was trying to get at. The rest of us, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Rosalie took a deep breath - it sounded surprisingly shaky - and then grabbed my arm, as if she needed something to hold on to. I put my remaining arm around her and lightly kissed her hair. Why was she suddenly so upset? All of this kept getting more and more confusing.

"Rose... Everything is alright. Calm down, there isn't anything you have to be afraid of" I whispered in her ear, trying to comfort her. She jerked her head in my direction. "No Emmett, nothing is alright! How can you not see it? Isn't it obvious?" she replied. I shook my head and gently rubbed her back. Carlisle was the next one to speak. "Emmett, I believe what Rosalie is trying to tell you and the rest of us is, that there seem to be parallels between her life and Bella's current situation. Maybe - and I pray to god that this isn't the case - Bella had to encounter a similar cruel fate as Rosalie did a long time ago."

His voice sounded professional. There wasn't much emotion, which usually was a pretty clear sign that something was bothering him so much that he had to try to distance himself from it.

But was that really possible? I could subconsciously feel how Rose's grasp of my arm grew even firmer, to a point where it was almost painful, but that didn't bother me at the moment. Bella? She was supposed to be the victim of such a vicious crime? Nobody deserved having to make such horrible experiences, but I couldn't wrap my head around it happening to Bella. She was still so young - just 16... She was a very petite young woman and probably wasn't remotely strong enough to defend herself against a man. It made me incredibly angry, but I knew that it would not at all be helpful if I snapped now, so I tried to stay calm and focus on getting Rose through this difficult moment. But still, why Bella? It just wasn't fair. "Life isn't fair, Emmett. It's always the innocent ones who get hurt, isn't it?" Edward said bitterly. "Just stay out of my head, Edward" I sighed.

We all knew what had already worried Carlisle and Rosalie so much and it was as if a big heavy cloak had been laid over us. Nobody dared to say anything anymore. We were speechless. Even Alice hadn't said a word in at least half an hour. Then, Esme sobbed and the sound broke the uncomfortable silence. It was heartbreaking. My siblings and I thought of Esme as a mother and seeing her cry was painful. She had saved us from doing stupid things so many times and we loved her with all our hearts. Usually, she was always there to give us advice and comfort us and to see her suffer was difficult.

"But why her?" Alice asked. "I don't know, Alice" Rosalie said. "There is never a reason, at least not in my eyes. It is something that can't be justified and I refuse to try to explain it. It just doesn't make any sense." Alice smiled feebly. "I can't imagine what it must feel like, but it has got to be horrible. Nobody deserves to experience this kind of pain." Esme was still crying, but she seemed calmer. "She is only 16. Her whole world must have collapsed. I can't even fathom how desperate she must have been to run away from home."

Esme herself had been abused by her husband for a long time until she finally got pregnant and escaped. I knew that it hadn't been easy for her, but now it suddenly appeared to me, that her situation might not be so different from Bella's. I knew that victims almost always knew their rapists. Had Bella's trust been broken by someone she loved. Was it just some stranger? I couldn't know and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to. Rosalie slowly loosened her grip on my arm. "Esme, how did you deal with your pregnancy when you were still human?" she asked.

Our mother seemed to chose her words very carefully. "It was most definitely not easy for me, but I had always wanted children and I was married to Charles after all, so he wasn't technically doing anything illegal. At the time, there was no such a thing as rape or even abuse within marriage. There were several times I was close to leaving Charles and when war broke out and he was drafted, my mother helped me prepare for an escape. But it somehow wasn't meant to be because just when I had packed my things, Charles returned and of course, he would have never let me leave. As his wife, I didn't have many rights, so I had no choice but to stay with him. I don't remember much of my time with Charles, anymore, but I still know how I felt when I realized that I was pregnant. It was clear to me, that there was no way I could raise a child in that household."

For a few moments, she thought about how to go on. "I wasn't thinking about myself, when I left town in the middle of the night. I was only thinking about my unborn child. My own mother had always been kind to me and I loved her very much and my father had often been hard on us, but I didn't seriously resent him either. Charles wasn't the type of person one would want anywhere near their children. He was a heavy drinker and didn't know when it was time to stop." Then, a smile appeared on her face.

"Of course, I had never forgotten about Carlisle even though I hadn't seen him in ten years. He still was the man of my dreams. I hadn't married Charles out of love. He was simply was my best option at the time and I didn't want to die alone. I also knew that my parents would approve of him - they had already started worrying that I would never find a husband - and he didn't seem like a bad guy when I first met him."

"Anyway... I travelled all the way from central Ohio to Ashland, Wisconsin. It was a very long journey and I had to stop in several towns to earn some money before being able to move on. I had a cousin up in Milwaukee and she had offered me to stay with her. I wanted to get as far away from Charles as I could, and especially back then, there was no way he could have found me in a small town in northern Wisconsin. Of course, life wasn't easy there either. I was pregnant without a husband. I took any work I could get. First, I was earning some money as a server, but then I figured out that it was easier to pass as a war widow. I wasn't as much of a disgrace and actually managed to be a school teacher. That made getting by a little easier, but people still thought it was pretty scandalous to be a pregnant single woman" Esme laughed bitterly. It was strange to look at Esme as someone scandalous.

"I'm so glad that times have changed and young women today don't have it as hard as I did, but I'm sure that carrying and raising a child alone still isn't without struggles. But well, a few days before I went into labor, I had to stop working and in the middle of September, I gave birth to little Joseph. I loved him with all of my heart and he finally gave my life a purpose again. It was as if being his mother had been my calling.

He was already a rather small and sickly baby when he was born, but when he got a lung infection before he was even a week old, things started looking very bad for him. The poor child hardly ever cried and he slept all the time. The doctors at the hospital made it very clear from the beginning that there was only a slim chance of him surviving. It is hard to imagine now, but this of course was before penicillin was discovered, so there wasn't much they could do for the little boy. And I hate to say it, but back then, one simply couldn't expect all children to survive. I mean, more than 10 percent of all babies didn't live to their first birthday. It was sad to lose a child back then, but it was just a part of life." Esme stopped talking for a moment to think about how to go on.

"Well, Joseph kept getting more ill every hour and it was no surprise when he died, but it absolutely broke my heart when his little lungs stopped breathing. It made me lose all hope. He had been my reason to live and I felt that motherhood was my calling. When poor Joseph passed away, the purpose of my life was taken away from me. I was certain, that I would never be able to have children again. After all, I was 26 years old already, still officially married to Charles and I had had a child. There was no way that I was going to find another man and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to. I was desperate and just couldn't find a way to go on. I believe you all know what happened next" she finished.

While I had already heard Esme's story several times and I had believed that I knew it pretty well, she had never told it in such great detail, there had never been as many emotions. I hadn't been aware, how heartbreaking the death of her son had been for her. I was positive that Esme was alright now, that she had accepted the loss, but it nonetheless made me sad to know that somebody as cheerful and caring and _optimistic_ as our mother had at some point been unable to see a way out and had been convinced that death was her best option. I knew how much she loved seeing us as her children, and I felt that I now could better understand her profound love for us.

Carlisle sighed. "It just worries me... I think Bella might be trying to escape from the perpetrator and from the memory. She sacrificed a lot just to be as far away from everything as possible, but it looks like she failed. She cannot escape from this pregnancy. I am aware that she could get an abortion and end the pregnancy, but she will never be able to forget completely. Her attempt at absconding has failed. This won't be easy. Imagine giving up so much and leaving everybody you love behind to get away from something and then realizing that all your efforts were unsuccessful..." That really must feel awful. I couldn't even imagine.

I wanted to turn to Jasper to ask him what he thought about Bella's mental wellbeing, but he was gone. This surprised me - I hadn't noticed him leaving. "Where is Jasper?" I asked, more than just slightly confused. Everybody looked around the room and nobody seemed to know. When had he left the room? Jasper had always been a very sneaky person and he had always been good at disappearing inexplicably, but this was unusual for him. I did however understand that there must have been a lot of different emotions from all sides, when Carlisle revealed his news. He had probably needed to get away to cool off a bit for a few minutes and I couldn't hold it against him.

Suddenly, Esme gasped. I turned around to see what was going on. "I cannot let Bella move in an apartment with Mike Newton!" she said and there her voice was almost panicky - not at all normal for her. "The dickhead who is in my Spanish class?" I asked incredulous. "Watch your tongue, Emmett Cullen" Esme snapped, but Edward nodded. "That's the one" he confirmed. I furrowed my brow. Mike Newton wasn't known for being a particularly sensitive person and he liked to play with girls a little too much for my taste. He was definitely not an ideal roommate for Bella, especially not if our suspicions were true and she had really been raped.

"I have to find someone else... She probably wouldn't even complain, but there is no way this would end well. She doesn't seem particularly respectful or intelligent to me and I don't think he understands that Bella is no Tanya Denali" Esme sighed. "It's a shame all the rooms are occupied. This is going to be an administrative nightmare, but there has got to be an alternative" she said gloomily. There had to be some solution! I had to protect her. Bella had entered our lives a mere two days ago, but she had already become important to me. It was hard not to think of her as a little sister. That's what she was to me - a sister. I felt the need to protect her from all evil and I knew that I would never be able to forgive anyone who hurt her.

Suddenly, Carlisle moaned. "There might be another problem. How do I tell her? I know I have to let her know as soon as possible, but how do you tell a 16-year-old girl who just moved around the world that she is pregnant? And how will she react? We already know that her reactions can be quite unexpected and with news like that, I am just not sure... It will have to wait until tomorrow, but she needs enough time to consider all her options. Another thing I am a bit worried about is her having to tell parents. She is a minor and hiding such a big thing isn't an option for her. Now, I of course don't know her parents personally, so it is hard to guess how supportive they will be, but I do know that her father is a doctor. I am just not sure if that's a good thing" Carlisle said.

He paused for a few seconds."I am sure he has a very good understanding how critical her medical situation is, which technically is a good thing, but knowing too much can be a curse. I don't really know anything about her mother." Esme furrowed her brow. "I have talked to her mother before and she sounded like a very nice lady and her parents seem to trust her judgment, since she was allowed to come here, but this is a very extraordinary situation and I am not sure how they will handle it."


	15. Vision

**Hello and welcome back! I hope everybody's 2018 is going great so far. Thank you so very much for all the support, I really appreciate it. As always, praise and criticism are welcome :)**

* * *

 **Vision**

 _Saturday 11-16-11/8:37 p.m._

 _Forks, WA_

 _Emmett's Pov_

We had all gone back to our rooms. It was much more quiet than usual. Nobody seemed to know what to say. The news really had shaken us to the core and we all needed some time to process the information. "I'll go hunting. Are you coming too?" Rosalie asked after we had sat on our bed in silence for several minutes. I nodded. The cold air would help me think and it had been a while since I last drank any blood, so the prospect of a mountain lion or even just a caribou sounded pretty good. We stopped by the master bedroom to let our parents know where we were going and then left the building.

We strolled towards the woods slowly, as not to attract too much attention. Once we reached the edge of the forest, we took off the warm coats and started running towards the mountains, where wildlife was more abundant. I had just picked up the scent of a herd of wapitis when I was overcome by a strange sensation. I slowed down and came to a halt in the middle of the forest.

 _It seemed to be fall - late September maybe, or perhaps early October. I could see a dark deserted cobblestone road in some city I had never been to before. A few street lamps were the only source of light. They looked old. Cast iron, decorated with flower and vine ornaments. The type of streetlights that had been common when I was younger. I felt nostalgic as I took a closer look at them. It was a shame they didn't make them that way anymore. The buildings all around me also looked ancient. They had to be at least two or three hundred years old. Was this Europe? What was happening to me?_

 _Suddenly, I could hear the sound of hurried footsteps and a young woman came running down the narrow road. At first she was too far away for me to be able to see her, but she was coming closer quickly. Her almost hip-length brown hair was wafting in the wind. She was carrying something but I couldn't see what it was. She had wrapped her arms around it tightly, as if she was trying to protect it from someone. What was she running from?_

 _All of a sudden, a man appeared. He was tall, probably about 6'5'' - my height. He had very broad shoulders and a muscular build. His hair was short and black and he had a russet skin tone. Was the man native American? I was confused because he quite obviously didn't fit in this very European setting. It looked like he was what the young woman was running from, but what was it that she was trying to protect from him?_

 _They kept getting closer to me, but they were still a couple hundred yards away. I could now hear the woman's breath. It was fast and sounded harried. She was a fast runner, but the man was even faster and the distance between them was decreasing quickly. Suddenly, I was able to identify the thing she was carrying. It was a small child, a little girl of no more than 4 years. It was amazing how fast the girl was able to run even though she was carrying a child. Something was very wrong._

 _The man had almost reached the man and I shuddered. What was going to do to her? What was I supposed to do about it? I didn't even want to imagine what would happen to the poor girl and the child. His steps were growing louder as he got closer to me and there now were only about fifteen yards between the man and the young woman. He would win this race. The woman seemed to have come to that same realization, too. She spun around and saw how close he had gotten. Then she just stopped. I held my breath, not knowing what to do. The man came to a halt also, a horrible grin spread on his face._

 _They were less than 50 yards away now. I concentrated on the woman's face, trying to get more information. A cold shiver ran down my spine and I could feel my jaw drop. It was Bella. The expression on her face was horrifying. She looked incredibly scared and desperate. I tried to go towards her, but I couldn't move._

 _The strange man slowly walked towards her. Bella wrapped her arms around the child even more tightly. She looked like she'd rather die than let go of the kid - it was a little girl. Bella glanced down at her for just the fraction of a second, but I could see how her eyes instantly brightened up when she saw the girl. As soon as she looked back at the stranger, the sparkle in her eyes disappeared. She seemed to know him and she was clearly scared. I took a closer look at him and realized that he could be no older than 16 or maybe 17. He was around Bella's age._

 _She shook her head quickly. It looked like she was trying to clear her head, to come up with a plan b, since running away had obviously failed. She stared at the man in front of her. All fear disappeared from her eyes. Then she very suddenly wheeled around, put the little girl on the ground and looked her firmly. "Abigail. Run away! I will come and get you, but run away!" she said to her in a strict, but caring voice. It was clear that she would not tolerate any dissent. Then she kissed the little girl on the forehead and repeated "Run!"_

 _The little girl turned around without a word and ran as fast as her little legs would carry her. She looked frightened. I remembered Carlisle saying something about Bella having a sister named Abigail. That did make sense, but how did she get into this situation? I prayed that she would be okay. I didn't want to imagine all the things that could happen to a little girl in the middle of the night, but I was sure that she was probably better off on her own than here with the strange man._

 _Bella had turned back to the man. "What do you want, Jacob?" she asked. Her voice was cold, there was absolutely no emotion in it. She still didn't look scared. It was as if she had just turned off her feelings. The man grinned diabolically and took another step towards her. Bella retreated. "Oh sweetheart, I am sure you know that yourself. You're a smart girl, after all." He made me feel sick. Bella took a deep breath. "I think you might be right, but I also think that I have told you how I feel about that on several occasions. You know what I think about it. And you have no right whatsoever to call me sweetheart" she replied. Her voice made me shiver._

 _The man laughed. "Oh Bella, you can't tell me what I can and can't do. You know you have a chance against me, so why do you even bother?" he asked. "I might be stronger than you think, Jacob" Bella replied and I knew that wasn't true. This Jacob guy was a couple heads taller than her and probably weighed twice what she did. He laughed even harder at this. Then he took another step towards her and slapped her in the face. I felt like I couldn't breathe. The force of his hand made Bella stumble backwards and she hit her head against the wall of the building behind her._

 _The fear was back in her eyes. She no longer looked like the strong, independent woman she had been before. Jacob took another step towards her. She tried moving back even further, but tripped and fell to the ground. She gave a whimper and tried to make herself as small as possible. Plan A had failed, so she probably thought hiding was her best option at this point. It was very clear, that she didn't stand a chance against him . Jacob laughed. To him, all of this seemed to be incredibly amusing. For a few seconds he just stood there - there were only a couple of feet between them - and enjoyed the image of Bella, cowering against the wall of the building behind her. It was disgusting and I would have given anything to help her, or at least to stop seeing those awful pictures._

 _He took another step towards her and kicked her in the abdomen. Bella whimpered and clutched a hand against her ribs. Jacob seemed to enjoy that and he kicked her another time. He hit her ribs again. Bella was gasping for breath, her face was contorted with pain. I tried to stop the images inside my head, but it didn't matter how hard I concentrated on anything else, I couldn't stop staring at her._

 _Then, very suddenly, the scene changed. The location remained the same, but it must have been a few hours later. It was dawning and the streetlights were no longer illuminating the narrow road. It was an overcast day. The street was still completely deserted. I looked around. The man, Jacob, was nowhere to be seen, but after a few second I spotted Bella. She was lying in a small niche. Her body was completely motionless. At this point I had figured out, that this must have been either Bella's past or my own very vivid imagination, but if I hadn't been so sure that Bella was perfectly alive and well at this moment, I would have been very worried. She did not look like she was alive, but luckily she only seemed to be unconscious._

 _I took a closer look at her. Her lips looked slightly blue, which made sense because she had probably been laying outside for hours and it was chilly out here. I hoped that she would be found or wake up soon. In my understanding, hypothermia could be pretty dangerous and it was quite evident that Bella's body was not warm enough. She had been wearing a coat before, but I couldn't see it now. Her top had ridden up and revealed a bit of skin on her side. She was very pale and there were small bruises all over her skin. One of them distinctly looked like a handprint. I was appalled. There were some minor scratches and cuts also, but they didn't look to serious._

 _Only now I noticed how skinny she was. Of course, Bella was a very petite person and I knew that, but it wasn't until now that I realized the extent of her underweight. Her hip bone was protruding and I could see some of her ribs where her shirt wasn't covering her. Dad was right, she definitely needed to gain a few pounds. This couldn't be healthy. For a little while, I had no choice but to stare at her motionless body. The helplessness was agonizing. What had the bastard done to her? I wanted to give her some privacy and look away, but I just couldn't. My eyes kept moving back to her tiny figure. For several minutes, nothing moved._

 _Then, after what felt like an eternity, Bella stirred ever so slightly and she opened her eyes. I sighed in relief. She seemed to be okay, at least as far as that was possible in this situation. After a couple of seconds Bella tried to sit up, but as soon as she moved, a small scream escaped her lips. She lied back down and took several deep breaths. Then, she sighed and started another attempt. This time, she seemed to have been prepared for the pain and she managed to sit up straight. She pulled her shirt down and grabbed something behind her - it was her coat. She put it on._

 _Bella sat on the ground for a little while, then she took a deep breath, grabbed a protruding brick in the wall next to her and heaved herself up. It took her a few seconds to move on after she had gotten up. Bella was clearly in pain. Suddenly, an expression of shock appeared on her face. "Abby" she muttered. "I have to find Abigail."_

And as fast as this vision had appeared, it disappeared. I shook my head to be able think straight again. I was still standing in the middle of the woods and it was now pitch dark outside. Rosalie looked at me with a very worried expression. "Emmett" she sighed. "Thank god... Your whole body went completely rigid and you were shaking. What was that?" she asked. Her voice sounded both upset and relieved at the same time. How long had this strange vision lasted? Where did it come from? Did all of this really happen? I had absolutely no idea, all I knew was that there was absolutely no way I would tell Rosalie about it. That just didn't seem right.

"Oh, it's fine. I was just thinking" I tried to calm her down. Rosalie didn't really believe me. She raised her eyebrows and looked at me incredulously, but luckily, she didn't say anything else. "Let's go find some deer" I sighed and started running. I was not going to tell anybody about this. I felt that Bella wouldn't want me to, at least not at this point in time.

I had to help Bella. I was going to help her. Cost it what may.


	16. The Night Before

**You might be surprised to find that I, indeed, am still alive. Sorry that I've kept you waiting for a full two months, but life got quite busy between getting a driver's license, organizing a complete trip for my American friend to come visit me in July, planning a summer camp for kids with my church, and trying to make it through junior year alive (because that thing's a nightmare). All kinds of apologies coming your way.**

 **But thanks for all the support! I really appreciate it!**

* * *

 **The Night Before**

 _Saturday 11-16-11/8:30 p.m._

 _The school, Forks, WA_

 _Esme's Pov ._

The living room was completely silent. It was just Carlisle and me. The kids were in their rooms. It didn't sound like anyone was talking. We were all still shaken. I looked back down at my book, but I just couldn't concentrate on what was written on its pages. There was way too much on my mind. I sighed. "Carlisle?" I asked in a low voice. "Yes honey?" he replied. "I'm going to be in my office. I really want to find Bella a room - today, if somehow possible. I can't think straight because it's bugging me so much" I informed him. He nodded. "Alright. Good luck. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." "I'll see you later" I said and left the room.

Once I arrived at my office, I sat down behind my desk and started the computer. From one of the various drawers, I took a notepad and tore out an empty page. When the computer was booted, I opened the file with the room assignments and looked if there were any unoccupied or only partly full, but of course, there were none. The school was operating at full capacity and I knew that. The only student without a roommate was Mike Newton and there was no way I was going to put Bella in a room with him.

At this point, I really only saw two options. I could either ask somebody else to move rooms and become Mike's roommate and put Bella in the newly unoccupied room. I was worried that this would start an entire chain reaction of people wanting to move. The thought of the udder chaos that would cause was quite intimidating, so I was hoping that I wouldn't have to resort to that option. The alternative was to put three people in one apartment. There was plenty of space because the apartments were reasonably big, I would, however, have to move two people in one bedroom. Getting an additional bed was the least of my worries at the moment, so that wouldn't be much of a problem.

I just had to find two volunteers. It would probably be best to have Bella in the individual room - as she seemed to be a little instable. I was also unsure about how the pregnancy would affect the situation. While I would do as much of the planning now, it was probably best to hold off any of the concrete things. Quite possibly, she would decide that returning to Switzerland was her best bet and my efforts would be in vain. But still, I had to think of people who might be willing to share a room.

Here at _CPS_ , most of the rooms were boys-, respectively girls-, only, but there were some co-ed rooms as well. Putting her in a boys-only was clearly not an option. Many of the co-ed roommates seemed to be couples. In fact, I was almost sure, some of them were already sharing rooms. There were no official rules prohibiting it, although the official policy was that each student should have their own rules. Parental consent was required for co-ed rooms - this also had lead to some drama in the past. Students - especially those madly in love - tended to cause major uproar when their parents tried to keep some distance between them and their partner.

Putting Bella in an apartment with a couple probably wasn't ideal (and parents probably wouldn't be overjoyed either), so I was going to look for a set of girls she could move in with. I looked at the list with the rooms. Anna Parkins and Brittany White? Too arrogant and superficial... Scarlett Litmer and Kristy Sailor? Too much preexisting conflict. Sarah Whitham and Leslie Miller? Those two spent all of their free time fighting for civil rights in Israel. This was something I didn't oppose at all, but they were definitely a little over-excited and I couldn't see them getting along with Bella too well.

The list went on like this. None of the existing pairs of girls seemed like very good matches. I sighed. Maybe I would have to look at the couples after all... There were Claudia Green and Frank Smith, but they seemed to argue a lot lately, so I wasn't sure if they were a good option. Ellen Parker and Mathew Bryant were very nice people and I liked them, but they were brutally honest and a little to forthright and I wasn't sure if those qualities made them ideal roommates for Bella. They also lived in one of the apartments on the top floor of the west wing, which was quite far from here (I preferred to find Bella a room close to us) and those apartments were slightly smaller than the rest.

Then there were Nicholas Parmer and Olivia Collins. But no... They were a little too ... special. I liked them and was sure that they were extraordinarily nice people, but they definitely took some getting used to. What other couples were there...

Angela Webber and Ben Cheney, I thought suddenly. Those two had been together for a long time and it didn't look like they were going to separate any time soon either. Angela and Ben were two of the friendliest people I knew and I expected that they wouldn't mind a third person moving in with them. I also knew for a fact that they were already sharing a room. Only a few weeks they had come to me and shyly asked if that was allowed. I told them to ask their parents, but told them that it was fine with me.

Their apartment was in the main building, two floors below our private area, which was ideal, as it was close to both school rooms and my family's part of the building. I could also imagine, that Bella would get along just fine with them. Angela and Ben were both calm and trustworthy people with great manners and a heart of gold. I would ask them tomorrow, as soon as Carlisle informed Bella of her pregnancy. I made a note in my agenda, shut down the computer and made my way back up to the living room.

Carlisle was still sitting on the couch, but he now had his laptop. "Hey honey" I said as I walked toward him. "Oh, hi! Did you have any success?" he wanted to know. I nodded. "It took me a while to get there, but I think I found an option everybody could live with." Carlisle smiled at me. "Well, that sounds great. What's the plan?" he asked. "Do you know who Angela Webber and Ben Cheney are?" I replied. Carlisle nodded. "Yeah, they are great kids." I smiled. "Well, that's what I figured. I decided that our best bet was to ask them if they would mind her moving in with them. I just thought I'd wait until we know what Bella's immediate future looks like", I explained.

My husband nodded. "Sounds reasonable. I don't know those kids well, but I doubt that they're going to have a problem with Bella moving in with them." "I just hope this works out because I'm not too happy with any of the alternatives. I always thought that we were a school filled with a bunch of the nicest kids you could find - and that's probably true too - but I just see Bella fitting in with any other the other rooms..." We were quiet for a few seconds. "What have you been up to?" I wanted to know.

"I decided to look up Bella's family on the internet to get a better understanding of her background and I was surprised to find that her family seems to be pretty famous back in Europe. Did you know that?" I slowly shook my head. "I mean I know that her father is a physician and that she has made a bit of a name herself through her school, but that's about it." Carlisle took a deep breath. "Well, get ready for a wild ride then. This is fascinating."

"Alright. I'm listening." "So... I just did a quick search because I didn't want to intrude into Bella's private matters, but still - I learned quite a bit. Finding more information on her father was pretty easy. He wrote several books and there even is a Wikipedia article on him. As you said, he is a physician. Earlier today, I found out that Peter actually knew of him, so I assumed that he must be well-known, but I wasn't expecting quite how famous he is. Dr Charles Swan is 34 years old, originally from London, like his daughter went to _SSA_ , graduated at age 16 and went on to study medicine in Zurich. Turns out that Dr Charles Swan was nominated for a Nobel Prize back in 2006 - at the age of 29. He is supposed to be an absolute genius" Carlisle explained.

"Wow. That really is impressive. But we know where Bella got her brains now..." I fell silent. "You said that he is 34" I repeated. Carlisle nodded. "Bella is 16... Therefore, the was only 18 when she was born." My husband looked at me thoughtfully. "I hadn't considered that, but you are right. Interesting..." He shook his head quickly, then went on. "Her mother, Elisabeth Swan Hildebrandt, also 34, is a psychologist. Actually also won several awards. She, like her daughter and husband, also went to _SSA_ , where she met Charles. She also went to university in Zurich and finished at the top of her class."

"What a family..." I muttered. "Oh, it gets even better" Carlisle promised. "The couple got married at age 18. Isabella Marie Swan was born approximately 11 months later. They have another daughter, Abigail Lynn, who just turned four a couple of years ago. Supposedly, _SSA_ gave her a full ride scholarship when she was just two years old." He chuckled. "What is also worth mentioning, is that the Swan family is among the richest in Switzerland. It is unclear, how wealthy they are, but estimates range from several 100 million up to a billion dollars. As far as I know, they inherited a fortune from Elisabeth Swan's parents and they both seem to earn good money too. They are actually one of the main sponsors of the school they all went to." He paused.

"Also - and I don't know how accurate this information is - they seem to be very well liked in their community. All the sources I found described them as friendly and likeable people with big hearts. Many even described them as humble and down to earth. Quite amazing, considering how rich they are" he told me. I nodded. "Well, Bella certainly seems to play the part." I smiled. "Indeed, that description does fit her very well." Neither of us spoke for a few minutes.

"I just still don't know what I should expect when telling her. I have absolutely no idea how she will react or how her parents will feel about the new circumstances. I mean, after all I looked up all those things to get a better feel for her situation, but I'm not sure if the additional information helped at all. In fact, I feel like it makes it harder for me to imagine what is going to happen next" Carlisle sighed. "I can't tell you, love. Nobody can... I just feel so bad for her. This kind of thing must be so hard to handle for such a young girl. She's just 16 and she literally just moved across the planet yesterday and now this... I can't imagine what that must be like for her..." I shook my head.

"I will tell her tomorrow after noon, as soon as I get home from work. My shift lasts until 12, I told her to be at my office at 12:30. We need to get this over with. The sooner she finds out, the better. I don't have any other plans for tomorrow. I expect that meeting could last a while. I just don't know, what it will be like and frankly, that is the most terrifying part" Carlisle explained. "I also don't have any plans for tomorrow afternoon. I think it's better if you speak to her alone, but I'll be ready in case you need some support, alright?" I proposed. Carlisle nodded. "That sounds reasonable. Thanks honey, I appreciate your support."

We spent the remainder of the night reading, but neither of us could really concentrate on our books. Carlisle left for work shortly before 5 am. After he left, I sat down at my desk and tried to get some paperwork done, but I found it hard to focus on what I was doing, so I eventually gave up. Today was the day. One girl's world would be flipped upside down in just a few hours and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. It was heartbreaking.

* * *

 **Also, if you happen to find any plot holes, I am incredibly sorry. I did a lot of rearranging because I am not totally in love with the way I went about things in the original and it is absolutely possible that I am writing complete nonsense for that reason. Just give me a heads up and I'll do my best to fix it.**


	17. Bad News

**Time for Bella to find out what's going on. Thanks for all the nice feedback! As always, I am open for any criticism, suggestions, and questions (compliments are obviously also welcome).**

* * *

 **Bad News**

 _Sunday 11-17-11/08:34 a.m._

 _Forks Community Hospital, Forks, WA_

 _Carlisle's Pov._

At first sight, it was a perfectly ordinary Sunday morning. Still, I felt like today would change a lot – not just in Bella's life, but in mine as well. It was a strange feeling. I knew that tragic things would happen all over the world and many lives would be turned upside down, but it felt like Bella's fate affected me much more. I had only met her two days earlier, but she had already secured a spot in my heart. The decision she would have to make soon was no easy one. Of course, she still had time, but this was the type of choice nobody should ever have to make. I wasn't sure if I would know what to do if I were in her situation.

Of course I was nervous. I still had no idea how I was supposed to tell this 16-year-old girl that she was pregnant. It was scary, but I knew that I had to keep a straight face. If I was visibly terrified, that would probably just make it much worse for her. I had never had a conversation like this one, even in all my years of being a doctor, but I didn't want her to know that. It at least had to seem like one of us knew what they were doing. This would never become one of my favorite days and I knew I would be glad to have gotten it behind me.

When I had called Bella yesterday to ask her to come to my office, she had already asked me if everything was alright and it took me every ounce of self-control to make it sound like things were somehow okay. I didn't want her to have to worry yet. She deserved another few hours of blissful unawareness. The girl was only 16, for god's sake! There was no way that she had wanted this. There were too many things speaking against that. Her health was unstable at best, she was underweight and emotionally overwhelmed. She was also a passionate dancer – if she were to keep the baby, she'd have to stop dancing very soon.

I wanted to keep all those things from happening to her, but of course I knew that it wasn't in my power to do that. I did really want it with all my heart, but determination alone wasn't going to accomplish anything in this case. My head kept telling me that I had no choice and that telling her the whole truth was my only option, but my heart didn't share that opinion. It urged me to help and protect her. Of course, I knew that my brain was right, but it took a lot of willpower to keep myself from listening to my heart.

I glanced at my watch. It was only a quarter to nine. Time seemed to pass much too slowly today. It was maddening. The rain was relentlessly drumming against the window of my office. Of course, that wasn't unusual here in Forks, but it didn't do anything to improve my mood either. I sighed and forced myself to continue working.

There was a knock on my door. I looked up and raised my eyebrows. I wasn't expecting any visitors. "Come in?" I called. A young nurse called Kelsey opened the door. "Good morning Dr Cullen. The sent me to ask if you could come down to the emergency department. We're quite busy and Dr Hollinger called in sick" she asked. I smiled at her. "Of course, no problem. I'll be down there in a couple of minutes" I told her. Maybe it would be good to get out of my office for a while.

I walked down the hall towards the small emergency room. It definitely seemed to be busier than normal. Usually, not much happened on Sundays. Peter waved at me and I smiled and waved back. It looked as if he was the only doctor in the department and there were several patients in the waiting area. I went to Kelsey to see whose turn it was next. She pointed at a middle aged woman in the back. "She fell and it looks like she broke an ankle. It might only be sprained, but the swelling is pretty bad. We gave her some Tylenol and an ice pack" she explained. "Alright. Thank you Kelsey."

The ankle did indeed turn out to be broken, but the fracture wasn't complicated. I had a hard time concentrating and while I was reasonably sure that I didn't put the patient in danger, I was noticeably slower than usual. I gave the woman a prescription for painkillers, a set of crutches, and a splint and sent her home with her husband. I also gave a little girl stitches (she had tripped and hit her forehead on a table) and treated a sprained wrists. The waiting area slowly emptied and Peter came up to me after we had treated all the patients.

"Are you feeling alright, Carlisle?" he asked me. "I'm fine. Just a little stressed out and worried. A little tired, you know?" I replied and smiled at him. He didn't seem convinced. "Well, that's unusual. I don't think I've ever seen you like this. Are you sure that everything's okay. I'm actually a little worried about you" he said and looked honestly concerned. I sighed. "Did you fight with Esme?" he guessed. I shook my head. "No" "With the children?" he continued to guess. "No, the family is fine" I said. "What is it then? You can't tell me that everything is perfectly fine. I don't buy it. I'm your friend and I'd like to know what troubles you this much."

I sighed again. "I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to talk it. I'd hate to hurt her privacy and I'm not sure if sharing this type of information would be justifiable" I protested. "A patient then? Who is it?" He was clearly not going to give up. I pinched my nose. "Only sort of. I'm a little nervous because I'll have to have a rather difficult discussion with a student later today" I explained. "A little nervous" he muttered. "But it is about something medical" I groaned. "Um, yes... I am just pretty sure that the student wouldn't appreciate me telling you all about it. The situation really is quite complicated."

"How about you don't tell me who the student is and explain the problem?" he suggested. My resistance was becoming weaker. I knew that telling him about it would make me feel better, but I really didn't want to betray Bella's trust. I sighed and pinched my nose again. "I take it you agree?" I took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. The thing is that it's sort of difficult to keep her anonymity. You'll know who it is immediately. You have to promise that nobody will ever find out I told you all of this." I still had some doubts. "You know I wouldn't do that. You can trust me."

"So, the thing is... One of our students is pregnant – and she is one of the younger ones at the school. To make matters worse, her health is definitely sub-par and she just moved here. No family or friends in the area. To be honest, she probably doesn't even know anyone in this country. And while we don't know much about her family, they are quite well known where she lived before and they appear to be rather traditional, so we aren't sure if they will further complicate matters" I summarized. Peter raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

"Wow" he said, "I can see how that would worry you. It's Bella, the student you introduced me to yesterday, isn't it?" I nodded. "Yes, it is." Neither of us spoke for a few seconds. "That might be problematic. With her health... And she's so young... Poor thing." I bit my lip. "And she doesn't know yet. I'll have to tell her later today and I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to do that. She'll be at my office at 12:30 and she will want to know why I told her to come. It just breaks my heart. And I have no idea how she will react. I don't know her very well yet and it seems like most of what we've seen of her is more of a mask than her real self. The girl sure knows how to hide her feelings" I explained.

Peter put his hand on my shoulder. "You can do it – you'll have to. I'm not saying that it will be easy and I really wouldn't want to be in your shoes, but there really isn't much you can do." I nodded. "I know. It's just terrifying to face the unknown. She seems like a very sensitive person. Very intelligent, too. Esme and I are both worried about her. We're not sure if she is alright. It seems like she already has other things she has to deal with. A pregnancy just makes everything so much more complicated."

"Do you think she will keep the child?" Peter asked. I shrugged. "I can't tell you. As I said, we barely know her. She appears to be a very practical person, but she had a catholic upbringing and went to a school that has rather traditional values. Hard to tell." Peter nodded. "Just make sure she knows about all her options. Give her time and space to think. Let her know that you'll support her no matter what her decision is" he advised me.

"That was the plan. It's important that she knows what her options are, but she also needs to know about the dangers. It is a very risky pregnancy. She is very young and her health is not at its best. I'll also have to speak to her about informing her parents. There just is so much we'll have to consider..." Peter nodded and we were silent again. "Thank you for being my friend, Peter. It was good to have someone to talk to. I appreciate that you care about me this much." He smiled. "No problem, Carlisle. That's what friends are for, right?"

"Right... I guess we should get back to work" I sighed. Peter shook his head. "Go home Carlisle. There is no point in you staying here. Go and get ready to talk to Bella" he said. "Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded. "But if it gets too busy around here, you'll call me and tell me to get back here" I told him. Peter laughed. "I would, but this is Forks on a Sunday morning, so I doubt that that will be the case. Good luck for later. It will be alright – I am absolutely sure about that. You can do this. And who knows – maybe Bella will surprise you." He smiled and patted my shoulder.

"Thank you Peter. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then" I said. "See you tomorrow" he replied and I started walking down the hall towards the exit. When I passed the front desk, the receptionist gave me a confused look. "You are leaving already? I thought your shift was until noon" Sally said. "Yeah, it is, but Peter told me to go home. I think I was a little too confused and unconcentrated" I explained. Sally looked slightly taken aback. This kind of thing had never happened to me before. In the two years I had worked here at the hospital, I had only ever missed one day and I supposed that people had just sort of gotten used to me being around here all the time.

"Well, I hope you feel better soon" she said. I nodded and smiled at her. "Thank you Sally. I'll see you tomorrow." I left the building and crossed the parking lot to get to my Mercedes. I got in the car, started the engine and drove through the wet streets back to the school, which was located a short distance from the town. There, I parked the car and walked up the stairs of the main building. "Honey, is that you?" Esme called when I entered the living room. "Yes, I'm home" I replied and her head appeared around the corner. "That was quick. I thought your shift didn't end until 12." I sighed. "Well, that's because it doesn't. Peter just sent me home early. He noticed that I wasn't feeling great" I explained.

Esme looked worried. "This whole thing really bothers you, doesn't it?" she asked. I sighed and nodded. "It does. I still haven't figured out how I am supposed to go about things later. It just keeps drawing closer and I am honestly terrified." Esme came over to me and hugged me tightly. "I am sure that you'll do fine. You know, there probably is no good way of doing it, so you'll just have to improvise. Bella was here just a few minutes ago. Asked me where your office was." I smiled. "I wanted to have the discussion in a neutral environment. And the chairs are damn comfortable." Esme raised her eyebrows.

"You really shouldn't curse, Carlisle. I feel like I spend hours of my life telling the kids to watch their tongues and you're not the slightest bit better than them" she scolded me, but she never stopped smiling. "You are right though. Those chairs really are comfortable" she then agreed. I laughed. Esme kissed me on the cheek and returned to doing what she had been working on before I had come back home.

* * *

 _12:24 p.m._

I went through Bella's file for what felt like the 79th time. I was growing more and more anxious and could barley sit still on my chair anymore. There was a knock on my office door. As I had expected, Bella was early. I took another deep breath and then told her to come in. She opened the door and I looked up. "Hello Bella. It's wonderful to see you. How was your morning?" I asked. She smiled. "Hello. My morning was great, thank you for asking." "Well, go ahead and sit down. There are a few things I'd like to go over with you" I explained and pointed to one of the chairs on the other side of my desk.

Bella sat down and I had a feeling that there was some worry in her eyes. Had I already given it away? Was I really such a horrible actor? "Okay, so why did you want to see me?" she asked. I took another deep breath. "So, as I already mentioned, there are some things I'd like to discuss with you, mostly concerning the results of our recent visit to the local hospital" I explained. She gave me a suspicious look. "Is it really that bad?" she asked and furrowed her brow. I grimaced unintentionally. "Well, in that case yes? We had better get going then", she said.

I sighed. "Alright, I'd like to start with your heart. I'm not sure how much Dr Whiterdale already told you, but everything seems to be perfectly fine. I was a little worried because your heart was beating a little too slowly and irregularly for my taste, but Dr Whiterdale couldn't find any abnormalities." Bella nodded. "Okay... Then we also did some blood work. The values are relatively good. We don't need to worry about anything in that department" I explained. "Well, that sounds great. What else? I am pretty sure that's not why you wanted to talk to me" Bella asked. I sighed.

"Oh, yes, there actually is more. But first of all: Is there a history of those diseases you have in your family? Many of them are genetic, so naturally, I was wondering..." I asked. Bella bit her lip and didn't say anything for a few seconds. "The thing is... I wouldn't know. Nobody really knows who my father is and my mother died years ago." Her voice was calm and she looked me in the eyes. I frowned. Her parents were Charles and Elisabeth Swan - or so I had thought. I was mystified, which Bella immediately picked up on. She sighed.

"I was adopted when I was five years old. Mom and Dad found me in an orphanage in London. I was born on the 11th of September 1995. The daughter of a prostitute. Identifying the father would have been quite tricky, so nobody ever bothered to try - I'm not sure if I even want to know. Momma was addicted to Heroin, so things were pretty rough at times. She died from an overdose when I was four. I'm not sure if she was a great mother to me, but she always tried her best. I loved her more than anything, but I don't remember much else. I landed on the streets after she died and someone found me. They brought me to an orphanage, but that wasn't much of an improvement. I was adopted about a year later" she explained.

I didn't know what to say. Bella was adopted... There was no way that this was publicly known. "Is that the official version of the story?" I asked. Bella shook her head. "No, it isn't. Actually, I have to kindly ask you to keep it that way. This is not the story the media knows and we'd be glad if it stayed that way." Her voice was neither mean nor demanding, but her words did have some authority. "Oh, of course. Thank you for being honest with me. Our kids come from a variety of different paths. Adoption is a wonderful thing" I replied. She nodded. "It definitely is. I don't know what I'd do without my parents." She smiled.

"Back to what we were talking about... As I said, I am not concerned about any of your values, but I'd like to keep an eye on them, considering that I consider you to be one of the "higher risk patients" here at the school. Is that alright with you?" I asked. She shrugged. "For sure. In Switzerland, I had to get a basic check-up every other week, but I am honestly not positive that that's really necessary" she explained. "Alright. How about every three weeks?" I suggested and she agreed.

Slowly but surely I could not avoid the topic any longer. "Bella, there is one more thing I'd like to discuss. It's about your ... weight." I changed plans mid-sentence. She looked confused. Obviously, she had noticed that something wasn't quite right - to put it mildly. I was become more nervous by the second. "Oh, of course. Well, I was always underweight. I was born a month early, so I was a very small baby. My early years, as I mentioned, were a little rough and food wasn't always available. I never received much medical attention either, so I was I very skinny kid. When I arrived at the orphanages, that didn't improve. The lady who ran the place found wasn't exactly what you'd call a nice woman. She soon found out that my mother had been a prostitute and thought I was a disgrace. I wasn't taken care of very well, but managed to get by somehow."

She paused and sighed. "Whenever someone came to inspect the orphanage, I was locked away because of course, they wanted the inspectors to see well-nourished, healthy children and I did not qualify. My parents visited because my dad was asked to do a routine check-up on all the children. Well, he accidentally entered the wrong room and found me. He told me that I was only skin and bones and couldn't stop crying, so he picked me up and took me with him. He confronted the superintendent. She wasn't even ashamed - my dad once told me she called me "a disgrace" and my mother "a dirty whore". They fired her very soon after that incident. But, sorry, I am wasting your time... Obviously, mom and dad did their best to cocker me, but I was always more on the skinny side."

I didn't quite know how to feel about this. It seemed that the more I learned about Bella, the more mysterious she became. Every bit of information revealed new enigmas and it was terrifying. What else had happened to the poor girl? It almost felt like she had more secrets than the entire Cullen family. But would we have been able to see all of that if Jasper hadn't sensed how she really felt? Would we have fallen for the charade? It was hard to tell. Bella was a good actress - everything seemed to be fine from the outside. Her breakdown yesterday morning might have made us worry, but I was pretty convinced that we wouldn't have guessed the extent of her desperation.

It wasn't like I didn't understand why Bella would hide all those problems from other people. It probably was the easiest way of dealing with the situation - especially since she seemed to be in the public eye and people could be awful. Someone certainly would try to profit from her situation, but Bella did her best to prevent that and so far she had been almost excessively successful in her mission. A new start in a different part of the world just made it much easier. Unnecessary relationships could be ended and she didn't need to build up deep connections with anyone if she didn't want to.

This type of behavior was understandable. In fact, I could definitely relate because it was the type of behavior that made having the life that my family had possible in the first place. We moved frequently, were careful not to build up any profound friendships. We always needed to be able to dissolve any relationship immediately and without causing too much uproar. It wasn't always easy, but it was much better than living solitary lives somewhere out in the woods, without any civilization around us.

The kids had gotten used to not even approaching other people if they didn't need to. Typically, they kept to themselves. That often made them seem rude and cold, but for us it was the only way we could keep our lifestyle. The way they acted towards Bella was highly unusual. Edward was the one who had had the fewest contact with her so far, but even he was very careful around her. I had never seen him be so cautious around another person before. But still, it seemed like he tried to avoid her whenever he could.

Maybe, avoiding her was his way of showing that he respected her. He was known for being rude and disrespectful - not something Esme and I were particularly proud of - but so far he hadn't shown any of that usual behavior in Bella's presence. I was wondering if that was just because he hadn't been around her for very long, or if there was something else...

"Carlisle?" I quiet voice asked and I looked up. Bella was still sitting in front of me and she was giving me a worried look. I quickly shook my head and took a deep breath. "Excuse me, Bella, I got a little lost in my thoughts" I apologized, slightly embarrassed. Bella furrowed her brow and looked me in the eyes. "No problem" she said and I felt like she was looking through me. Her green eyes were boring into my caramel ones. I was pretty good at reading people's feelings. There was definitely a hint of fear and nervousness in Bella's eyes, though it was well-hidden. She knew exactly that there was something else I had to tell her. I lowered my eyes.

"But that's not all, is it? I can see it in your eyes. Your worried and nervous and frankly, that is making me feel a little anxious too, so I'd appreciate if you would tell me, no matter how bad you think it is" she told me. I hadn't expected such a bold statement and was taken slightly aback. I, like her, was an excellent actor and I had been under the impression, that my feelings were quite well-hidden, but obviously that wasn't the case. That worried me. If Bella was even better at reading people than we were, she could be a real danger to us. Although I was quite sure that she wouldn't expose us even if she ever figured out our true identity, I wasn't certain that I wanted to risk her finding out. But that wasn't something I worried about now. There were much more urgent things I had to discuss.

"You are right, Bella. There indeed is more that I have to talk about with you. The thing is... It's fairly complicated and I am not sure about how to approach the subject" I sighed. I leaned back in my armchair and pinched my nose. "Alright, I will just give it my best try... At the hospital, when I first got back the results from all the blood tests I was planning on just skimming through the results on our way to Dr Whiterdale's office. Well, you might remember me suddenly stopping in the middle of the hallway" I looked at Bella and she nodded. "I was wondering about that, actually" she replied with a small smile.

"All your blood values looked perfectly fine - nothing unusual. There was just one thing that was abnormal." I should really get to the point, but I just couldn't. How was I supposed to tell her? When I looked at those good-natured eyes and her young face, I couldn't imagine letting her know that she was pregnant and that her life might just take a 18p degree turn in the near future. Bella sighed and looked at me. She now looked openly concerned. "Just say it" she requested. Of course, she was right. There was no point in me awkwardly stuttering. On the contrary, that would just make things so much worse. I had to get it over with.

"The paper I got from the lab clearly stated that the amount of hCG in your blood was elevated" I said. I was about to explain, but Bella's face changed immediately. "Oh" she said. I watched her closely - anxious to see her reaction. I still had no idea what to expect. "Oh" she repeated, this time a little louder. She clearly knew what that meant. I looked at her with my brow furrowed. Her eyes darkened, and they way she looked at me was frightening. Her eyes were on me, but she didn't look like she actually saw me. I didn't like it.

Was this the way she reacted? Completely calm and lacking any emotion? I would have preferred an angry tantrum or tearful breakdown. I had no idea how to react to this. Should I react at all or should I just give her some time to process the news? I wasn't sure. After a few more moments, she shook her head slightly and her eyes cleared visibly. "Pregnant" she whispered. Her voice was very calm and controlled, without any trace of emotion. Unsettlingly calm. It scared me. I would have very easily forgiven her for demolishing my office, but she just sat there quietly and looked at me.

"Four weeks?" she asked. I pinched my nose again. She seemed to have a pretty clear idea how all of this could be possible. "It is hard to get an idea of how far a pregnancy has progressed with a simple blood test, but that seems plausible." She sighed. "I hate to ask this now and I am not sure if this is the appropriate time for this question, but will I be allowed to... to stay here?" she then asked hesitantly. Her voice was low and there was a trace of alarm in it - although it was perfectly possible that I had just imagined that. Her question surprised me.

"Of course, it that is what you want. Of course you are allowed to stay" I promised her. "And that is fine with Esme too?" she wanted to know. I sighed. I had actually hoped that she wouldn't ask that question. "Um... She is. I must admit that I told her about the situation. I am sincerely sorry that she found out before you. I realize that I overstepped my bounds by informing her without your permission, but I needed some advice about how to best approach the topic. I... I am really sorry Bella. I hope you will forgive me for my mistake" I apologized and hoped that she'd understand why I had acted the way I had.

"Oh, that's fine, I guess. She would have found out very soon anyway... Don't worry about it" she replied, still not showing any emotion. "Are you okay, Bella?" I asked seriously. Bella nodded. "Yeah" she said "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. A little surprised, but everything's okay." She even smiled slightly, but I wasn't sure if I believed it. She was a little too calm for my taste, but I decided that it was probably best if I didn't force anything, so I just smiled back.

"I don't want to rush you, but I will have to say that you should think about how you want to inform your parents. You are still a minor, so they will definitely have to find out. Do you think that you'll need any support for that. Esme and I would be happy to help" I said. Bella nicked slowly. "Yes, they should find out as soon as possible..." She fell silent for a few moments. "Do you think I could travel back to Switzerland for that? I would like to tell them personally. My mom tends to worry a lot and my father sometimes overreacts, which is exactly what I'd like to avoid. I didn't want to go back until Christmas break, but... Could that be arranged?" she wanted to know.

Why did see seem to be vehement about not going back to Switzerland? Chances were that I would never find out, but I suspected that it had something to do with my theory of her trying to escape from something or someone. Nobody put so much effort into getting away just to come back after three days. That did make sense. The more I learned about Bella and the circumstances, the more positive I was that my theory was right, though I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be that way.

"Yes, certainly, I am sure that could be arranged." Bella nodded and we were silent again. It was uncomfortable. "Why do you not want to go back home?" I then asked. Bella was completely silent. All she did was to look me in the eyes. It was a piercing look. Her eyes were full of feelings I had never seen in her. Her face was blank, but I could see pain and longing in her eyes. Her look transfixed me. I realized that I really had better not asked that question.

I decided that it was time to change the subject. "Should I call Esme? With her you could talk about all things concerning school and about going back to Switzerland" I proposed. Bella nodded.


	18. Planning

**Believe it or not, but I am back after only five days (because spring break actually gave me some time to write). As I mentioned in one of the previous chapters, I am rearranging some of the plotline - I myself think that the originial doesn't make much sense tbh. This means that there is a good possibility that I am writing total nonsense. If that is the case, please let me know and I'll do my best to solve any plotholes.**

 **Thanks for the support! I appreciate it!**

* * *

 **Planning**

 _Sunday 11-17-11/02:12 p.m._

 _The school, Forks, WA_

 _Carlisle's Pov._

"Yes, talking to Esme would definitely make sense. Thank you" Bella agreed. "Let's do that then. I'll call her right away." I dialed Esme's number and held the speaker to my ear. It took a few seconds until my wife picked up the phone. While I was waiting, I grabbed a pen and started scribbling on an empty sheet of paper. That was one of my vices and it had become almost like a reflex - looking for a pen and a scribble-able surface as soon as I dialed a phone number.

"This is Esme Cullen?" I heard my wife's voice at the other end of the line. "Hi honey. I just wanted to ask if you could come down to my office. Bella would like to talk to you" I explained while haphazardly drawing. I looked down and an entire army of stickmen was looking back at me. Their heads were much too large and they all frowned. I quickly averted my eyes. The stickmen made me feel uncomfortable and I hadn't been aware that I had been drawing them either, which just made it more chilling.

"Oh, of course. I'm already on my way. I'll be there in a couple of minutes, okay?" Esme answered. "Great, thank you. I love you" I thanked her. "Love you too. See you" she said and hung up the phone. I smiled at Bella. "She will be here in a couple of minutes" I explained. She nodded. "Okay... Thank you." After that, we were sitting in a silence that almost felt oppressing. Neither of us knew what to say. Usually, I liked the silence - I thought it to be calming and serene - but this was uncomfortable. All I could hear were Bella's heartbeat and breathing. I was starting to feel almost claustrophobic.

The door swung open and Esme entered the room. I immediately felt better. My wife had always had a way of bringing love and happiness into every room she entered. She could make people feel much more comfortable and secure without any effort. Of course, my son Jasper could do similar things, but with him it was only an illusion - Esme actually changed people's moods. It was part of the reason why I had fallen in love with her. In the almost 400 years of my life, I had never met a single person who was more caring than Esme.

Finally, the silence was broken. "Here I am. How can I help?" she asked with a smile. I sighed relieved. Bella also seemed to be much more relaxed now. She cleared her throat. "Well, Carlisle already assured me, that I would be allowed to remain at this school, even though I am ... pregnant, but I would like to confirm that you agree. Would either keeping the unborn child or having an abortion be a reason for expulsion?" It was quite clear that she had worded her request very carefully. Her voice was low and very calm. Her composed behavior seemed to take Esme aback just as much as it had surprised me.

No matter how many scenarios I had made up in my mind and how many hours I had tried to figure out, how this conversation would go, this was absolutely not what I had expected. I had anticipated her reaction to be surprising, but it was shocking, how far off I had been. However, the longer I thought about the past half hour, the more I began to see, how this really shouldn't have been as unexpected as it had been. Of course, I barely knew Bella, but everything I had seen of her indicated that this was her normal behavior. She was a very composed person. She tried not to show too much of what she really felt. She was careful not to drop any of the pretense she had so carefully built up. This made sense.

Esme's surprised gasp brought me back to reality. "Oh, of course not, sweetheart!" Obviously, she hadn't expected Bella to be this forthright. "If you would like to stay here, you are very welcome to. We will support you in whatever you decide and we also don't want to interfere with any of your decisions. I realize that this is a very difficult situation and we definitely don't want to make it any harder than it already is" she added.

Her straightforwardness was something I really appreciated about Bella. It made talking to her easier because she didn't try to divert or euphemize at all. But although she was forthright, she never seemed rude. Emmett, for example, was also very straightforward, but what he said wasn't always very thoughtful, so sometimes appeared to be quite tactless. This was something he struggled to believe and even though we had told him many times that sometimes brutal honesty wasn't his best option, he hadn't changed much over the past few decades.

"I appreciate that more than you can imagine. That is very considerate of you" Bella thanked Esme. It looked like she attempted to smile, but didn't succeed. This, for the first time, confirmed my suspicion that she wasn't quite as calm as she seemed. "But that goes without saying! You can attend classes as long as you feel comfortable - or Carlisle deems it safe. That is, if you were to keep the child. I doubt that missing some school would have much of an impact on your academic performances, as you're ahead of the curriculum anyway. Any missed class-time would of course not be held to your disadvantage. If you want me to, I can inform your teachers. They are all very competent and I am sure that they would be willing to work something out with you. Carlisle let me know that the due date would be sometime in summer - maybe even during summer break, which would be ideal. We are willing to do everything in our power to make this a bit easier for you. I am sure that we'll be able to find a solution that works for everyone" Esme explained.

Bella blushed slightly, but looked very thankful. "But you don't have to do that. Don't work harder just because of me. I'll be fine, I'll figure it out somehow. Frankly, I don't really know what to make of this yet, but I..." She didn't finish her sentence. "We do not mind in the least, Bella. I absolutely believe that you're a very extraordinary person and that you'd figure out something, but it's not going to be easy. Let us help. If there is anything we can do, just let us know. Is there anything else I can help you with right now?" my wife wanted to know. Bella's blush deepened slightly.

"It bothers me that I am already making special requests, but I would like to return to Switzerland for a few days. My mother tends to overthink things and worry and I expect that my father might be a little angry, so I think it's better to tell them in person. That will prevent all kinds of miscommunication. Of course, I also have to decide how I will handle this. I haven't made a choice yet and I think I need to really take some time to think about all my options and this situation. I don't want to make a rushed decision that I will regret later" Bella explained.

Esme nodded. "Alright, no problem. That sounds very reasonable. I actually have to admit that I thought you might want to go back to Switzerland, so I've already looked up some connections. As you might know, there are no direct flights from Seattle to Zurich and of course I don't know how soon you want to return home, but some good connections I found included a flight via Iceland tomorrow evening - though I am not sure if that isn't too soon - or else one via Washington DC on Wednesday. On that flight, there however only are seats in the business class, so that might be a little costly" Esme told Bella.

"Well, that was absolutely not necessary, but I certainly appreciate your effort. If that still somehow can be arranged, I would prefer the flight that leaves tomorrow. I realize that I also need someone drive to Seattle and I don't want to inconvenience anybody, so it wouldn't be a problem if that is too short-notice." Bella was very obviously worried about being a burden, but I knew Esme loved being able to help out other people. "Oh, no that wouldn't be a problem. I only teach in the mornings anyway, so my afternoons are quite flexible and I could drive you there" Esme explained.

"And you're absolutely sure that that's okay" Bella asked again. Esme just smiled and gently put her hand on Bella's shoulder. "I am 100% sure. Bella - don't worry so much. I genuinely enjoy being able to help other people and that's the least I can do for you. Do you already know when you want to come back?" Bella shrugged and sighed. "I am not quite sure. Friday, maybe? That would give me enough time to explain everything and I could start thinking about what I am going to do next. Does that sound reasonable?" she suggested. I nodded. "That sounds perfect" I approved. Bella smiled.

"Well, then we should try to book that flight. I am right that you have a multiple-entry student visa?" Esme enquired. Bella nodded. "Yes, the visa shouldn't be a problem." Esme smiled. "Okay, great. Should we move to my office? I have all my documents et cetera there, so that would probably be easier" Esme proposed and Bella agreed. I offered to come along, but denied. "I don't think you really need me. I suppose that I'll see you later" I said. Bella nodded and smiled - a real, genuine smile this time. She seemed to have calmed down a bit and I was glad to see that. "I suppose so. Goodbye" she replied and left my office behind Esme.

I shook my head. That been one of the most stressful and unpredictable hours of my life and I wasn't sure if I had processed it correctly yet.

* * *

 _Esme's Pov._

Bella and I left my husband's office together. I was still amazed at how unruffled Bella was. She almost seemed unfazed by the news - which I found hard to believe. I was positive that she was much more worried and upset than she let us see. Bella was certainly not a cold person without normal human feelings. This level of self-composure was impressive, but I wasn't sure if I liked it. Could it do her any good to hide away all those feelings? I didn't know, but had to accept that it ultimately was none of my business either.

We walked down the hallways in silence and eventually stopped at the door to my office. I took my keys out of my pocket and unlocked it. Then I asked Bella to come in. "You can sit wherever you like. Although - I have a better idea. How about I put one of the chairs behind the desk, so you can see what I am doing on my computer? That would be much more comfortable too" I suggested. Bella nodded. "That's a good idea, I think" she agreed and started lifting one of the chairs. They were arguably quite heavy and I was surprised how effortlessly she seemed to carry it around the desk.

"Looks like someone's strong" I said. Bella smiled. "Oh... Um, yeah, I guess. I practiced more than usual - dancing, I mean. Ballet takes more arm muscles than one would think" she explained after she had set down the chair behind my desk. In the meantime, I had booted the computer and logged in. We were ready.

"Let's see" I muttered and opened the internet. "As I said, that flight I found would be via Iceland with Iceland Air. The layover isn't too long, so I thought that that was pretty convenient. If you don't like that connection, we could still find another one, I'm sure." Bella shook her head. "No, that sounds perfect. You said it departs sometime in the evening?" she asked. "Yes, around 7 pm, I think. That would mean you'd arrive in Switzerland at approximately 4 in the afternoon." It had taken me longer than it should have to calculate that. 12 hours flight and 9 hours time difference had caused some slight confusion - and I was supposed to be intelligent.

"Thank you, Esme" Bella suddenly said, without any context. "Well, you're welcome, but what specifically were you referring to?" She shrugged. "I am not exactly sure. Everything, I guess. I've only been here for a couple days and you've already done so much to help me. I really appreciate that. You treat my like a perfectly normal person. That's something that's very important to me and you're doing me a huge favor. Also thank you for being so thoughtful and looking up flights in advance even though you absolutely didn't have to. That is exceptionally kind of you. And most of all, thank you for giving me a place to live and for letting me stay at this school. I really don't want to have to go back, you know" she tried to explained.

All of those things had seemed natural to me. I hadn't even put much thought into them, so I was very surprised by this sudden outburst of thankfulness. It even made me a little proud. The booking didn't take long. It turned out that Bella had her passport number memorized, so we didn't have to get any additional documents. We also already bought her a train ticket. Bella felt very uncomfortable with me wanting to pay for it and she was stubborn about not accepting my offer, so we eventually settled to split the cost (even that didn't make Bella 100% happy, but I wouldn't accept anything less). We had way too much money and this seemed like a good way to spend it.

After we had figured out everything and made plans for the coming day, Bella said goodbye and went back to her room. She wanted some time to pack up some things for the short trip and probably also needed some time to think. We had decided that she wouldn't have her first day of school on the next day because she wouldn't be here for the rest of the week. When I shut down the computer, I felt oddly accomplished. I wasn't sure what exactly made me so happy, but I wasn't sure if I really cared either. It felt good.


	19. A Turbulent Evening

**I'm finally back. This took a while because I'm very busy at the moment and this chapter required a lot of rearranging. It contains the plot of four chapters of the German version and I shortened it considerably because I feel like the original version was way too long and some parts were just weird. I hope it still makes sense - if not, let me know.**

* * *

 **A Turbulent Evening**

 _Sunday 11-17-11/07:37 p.m._

 _The school, Forks, WA_

 _Esme's Pov._

I decided that this evening would be a good time to make housing arrangements for Bella after she returned from her trip to Switzerland. She had made it very clear that she wished to stay at the school. A few minutes ago, I had called her to let her know that I was currently looking at potential roommates for her (of course she had protested and told me that she could just stay with Mike Newton). I wanted her permission to let Angela and Ben know that the situation was a little extraordinary because Bella was pregnant. She agreed that anyone who possibly agreed to sharing a room with her should be informed of the circumstances and I had assured her that the couple both were very trustworthy.

Now that I had her permission, it was time to actually ask Angela and Ben for their opinion. I had grabbed some files from my office desk and was on the way to their room. When I arrived at the door to their apartment on the third floor of the main building, I stopped and knocked. For a few seconds nothing happened and I started suspecting that they weren't home. Then I heard footsteps and the door was opened. Angela's faces looked at me curiously. I had to look up to her because she was very tall - more than 6 feet. Ben was also shorter than her, but it didn't seem to bother him.

She looked surprised, but friendly. "Oh, Mrs. Cullen" she said astonished. "You know I'm Esme for you, Angela" I reminded her. "Is Ben here too? I would like to talk about something with you two - if you don't mind, of course. I can come back later, if this is an inconvenient time for you" I added. "No, I'm here and we don't have any plans for tonight. Would you like to come in?" he offered. His kind brown eyes were filled with curiosity. "That would be wonderful, thank you very much" I replied. Angela stepped aside and entered the room. It was very tidy.

"Well, what did you want to discuss with us?" Angela wanted to know. "I actually have a request for you. It's about a girl - Isabella Swan. She's a new student" I replied and took a deep breath. "You have an empty bedroom, right?" I asked carefully. Ben looked relieved. I didn't know what he had expected to say, but it seemed like he thought that they were in trouble. "Oh... That's what this is about... Yes, that room is still empty. Her moving in would be fine with me" he said. Angela nodded in agreement. I smiled.

"That is very generous of you and I am thankful for you kindness, but there a few things you should probably know about her before agreeing." The two of them nodded slowly."Now, I don't want you to have a false image of her. Bella is a really nice girl. She just moved here from Switzerland She's only 16, which means you are both older than her, but I highly doubt that this will an issue at all. She looks older - I would say about 18 - and she is very mature. A very intelligent girl, too. Back in Europe she attended a private school that only accepts very gifted students. She seems to have a very broad spectrum of interests. I was told that she plays both the piano and the violin and she's a dancer. I found out that she speaks 6 languages, which I thought was pretty impressive" I explained.

"Well, that all sounds pretty great, but why do we need to know all of those thing?" Angela asked. I sighed."There is more. It's just that the whole thing is a little complicated, to put it mildly. She has a number of medical conditions that sometimes cause issues and those diseases limit her life expectancy significantly. However, that shouldn't really affect you. What for you is probably more problematic is that she seems to have some personal issues - if I may call it that. She doesn't like people getting very close to her physically. She gave us a real scare yesterday when Carlisle accidentally startled her." I stopped to think whether I should tell them more.

"Now, I have to admit that I am not 100% certain if I should tell you this, but I think it's important for me to be open with you. Carlisle and I have talked about her a lot in the past few days. There seems to be an underlying issue that we of course cannot identify without her telling us about it. However, we do have some suspicions. To us it seems, as if she built up "a second personality", if I may say that. It's like a mask that protects her and the people around her. And I have to admit that she seems to be an excellent actress. The pretense is good. And now, I have to repeat that Bella is the kindest person I can imagine and I am sure she only has the best intentions. We just aren't sure if her strategy is going to work out on the long run."

"You think she will crack under the pressure eventually?" Ben wanted to know. I nodded. "I guess you could put it that way. Um... Carlisle is suspecting that she is trying to escape from something. We don't know whom or what she is trying to flee from." I stopped. Did I have a right to tell them what we thought the issue was? I did not want to hurt Bella's privacy, but at the same time, I felt that I had to prepare Angela and Ben as well as I possibly could. "We think she might have been a victim of sexual violence" I sighed. Angela gasped, Ben's face hardened. "Oh" he said, apparently at a loss for words.

I took a deep breath. "The reason I came to talk to you today is that she is supposed to move in with Mike Newton. I'm not sure if you know him and I don't want to say anything derogatory about him, but I seriously doubt that he would be a good partner for Bella. Now, I could swear that she would share a room with him without protesting - she's much to proper to complain - but it wouldn't be good for her. Mike Newton doesn't look like a very sensitive person and I worry that he wouldn't try to be more careful around her. I don't think living with her would be difficult, there are just some things one would have to look out for. No walking up to her from behind or approaching her too fast, but that's about it, I'd say." The two of them nodded.

"We could do that. It's not a problem for us. Of course she's still welcome here" Angela said. I smiled at her. "That is very kind of you. However, there is one more thing you should know. Bella gave me the permission to inform you and she agreed that it would be important for you to know. When Carlisle wanted to do a routine check-up on her general health - it was slightly more extensive than usual as the circumstances are a little different than with most of our students - he ... made a discovery." I paused. "Bella is pregnant. She's four weeks along."

"Oh, wow, I... She's only 16?" Angela wanted to know. I nodded. "Yes. And it was almost exactly four weeks ago that she very suddenly accepted a scholarship we had offered her a while ago. This is one of the reasons why we suspect that she might have been sexually assaulted. She seemed to change her mind and want to get away from home very abruptly" I explained. Ben sighed. "That must be though. I can't imagine being in a new place and not knowing anyone and then finding out something like that. But my offer still stands. She can move in any time. I agree that she probably shouldn't share an apartment with Mike Newton and she sounds like a nice person. What about you, Angela?"

Angela nodded. "Of course. I don't think there's much I can add. Is there anything we need to pay special attention to?" she asked. I shrugged. "Not really. As I said, you probably have to be a little more careful around her as not to startle her, but besides that... Keep an eye out for her. If you think something's not okay either physically or mentally, let Carlisle or me know as soon as you can" I explained. They nodded. "We can definitely do that" Ben said. "Not that that matters, but what does Bella look like? Just so I'd recognize her if I were to meet her around school" Angela wanted to know.

"Isabella is very pretty. Although - I am actually not sure if pretty is the right word... I think beautiful is better. She has very long, brown hair. It's almost down to her hips, but she doesn't seem to wear it open very often. She's around 5'7'', I'd say and has a petite figure. Her face is hard to describe. Actually ... would you like to meet her? I'm sure we'd be able to find her and it's not too late yet." They both liked the idea. "If it's possible, that would be great. I'd like to get to know her" Angela said. I smiled. "I guess there is one more thing you should know. Bella is a very charismatic person and she has already wrapped my whole family around her finger, so watch out."

We first tried to find her in the library because I had a suspicion that she might be spending some time there. According to Alice, Bella had been more than excited about all the books, when she had showed them to her. However, the library was completely deserted and Bella was nowhere to be found. I shrugged. "Well, it was worth a try. She might be in her room. We arranged for her to live in one of our guest rooms until we could figure out who she should share an apartment with" I explained and we went up to the fourth floor, where our private area and the guest rooms were located. Angela and Ben had never been up there and they were looking around curiously.

Just when we reached the top of the stairs, we could hear yelling. It sounded like Emmett and Rosalie. I froze. "Hang on, I should probably see what's going on there. Would you mind waiting here for just a minute?" I asked them. "Oh, of course. No problem" they assured me. This sounded pretty serious. Rose and Emmett often had smaller squabbles, but this was a full-on fight. I jogged towards their room. Before I even reached the nearest corner, I heard the loud bang of a shutting door. Everything fell silent. "God damn it" Emmett cursed, then he sobbed. This really had to be pretty bad.

* * *

 _Emmett's Pov., a few minutes earlier_

I just couldn't get that vision of Bella and the man in the street I had had yesterday out of my head. I assumed that the girl named Abby was Bella's sister. But what had this 4-year-old to do with the situation? How had they landed there? I didn't know and it was driving me crazy. "Earth to Emmett! I am talking to you! Are you even listening?" That was Rose. She was starting to get annoyed with me. My wife waved her hand in front of my face. "Oh, I'm sorry Babe. What did I miss?" I asked, hoping that I hadn't seriously hurt her feelings.

"Jesus, Emmett! What's up with you? You're suddenly so different. Ever since we went hunting yesterday you just haven't been the same. I don't think I've heard you laugh even a single time today. I am worried. Why won't you tell me what's wrong? That just isn't _you._ " She did sound hurt, but I couldn't tell her. Bella wouldn't want me to, that I was sure of. "It's nothing. I was just thinking" I tried to shrug it off. Rosalie was not convinced. She shot me a pleading look. "Emmett, you can't fool me. Tell me what's going on! This definitely isn't _nothing_ " she pleaded. Her voice wasn't as calm anymore. She was getting angry.

It hurt. This wasn't the first argument in our relationship - we had been together for decades, after all - but it upset me every single time. She was my wife and I loved her more than anything else in this world. I didn't want her to be angry at me. I took a deep breath in order to stay calm. I didn't want to hurt her feelings any more than was absolutely necessary. "I'm worried about Bella - I mean we all are. Her situation is so unfair and that's just not okay. I like Bella" I tried to explain.

"Oh, so that's what this is about" Rose yelled. "How much do you like her?" This wasn't good. Of course, she was angry and I could understand that, but how could she accuse me of something like that? She had overstepped a line. Did she accuse me of not loving her anymore? Rosalie was my life. Did she not realize that? I was losing my temper. "Rosalie Lillian Hale! How can you allege something like that! I like Esme and Alice to, don't I? So how is liking Bella any different? This is absurd. We've been married for decades! Why would I suddenly stop loving you? This is ridiculous" I yelled back and immediately regretted it.

It offended me that she didn't trust me 100%. Had I ever let her down? I loved her for Christ's sake! Rosalie started crying. Her sobs broke my heard. Then she ran out of our room. "Rose!" I called after her, but she didn't come back. "God damn it" I cursed. Was this the end? Had I betrayed her? Did she not love me and it was all my fault? I walked backwards until my back touched the wall and slid down to the floor.

* * *

 _Esme's Pov._

I knocked and then stepped into Rosalie's and Emmett's bedroom. Emmett was sitting in the far corner. His body was completely slumped and he was sobbing. He looked so vulnerable. My mom-instincts started kicking in. I wanted to be right next to him to console him. There naturally were no tears, but that didn't make it any better to me. I loved him just as much as I loved my other children and I hated when they were unhappy. I wasn't aware of any fights of this extent between Rosalie and Emmett. The past 70 years had certainly been turbulent, but they weren't usually angry at each other for more than ten minutes at a time.

"Emmett! What is going on?" I asked calmly and put my hand on his shoulder. "I... Rosalie and I... we had a fight. And now... now she's ... gone. She left. It's all my fault" he sobbed. His voice broke at the end. "Emmett, Emmett, calm down. I am sure she didn't mean that. It was probably just a stupid misunderstanding. These things happen" I tried to calm him down, but I wasn't particularly successful. "I didn't want to argue. But then I started yelling and she ran away. She probably doesn't love me anymore. I really hurt her feelings" he tried to explain. Against my will I had to smile.

I pulled him up and hugged him tightly. Deep inside, Emmett really was just a child and he would be completely lost without Rosalie. Without her he didn't know his place in the world and he was completely helpless. And sometimes he was just a bit of an idiot. I patted his back. "But Emmett" I started, "Rosalie does still love you and she always will. You two are soul mates and something like that could never separate. Nothing could." He looked down at my face. "You think so?" he asked. I smiled and nodded. "I know it. I will warm up a cup of grizzly blood for you and then I'll try to find Rosalie, okay?" I proposed and Emmett nodded.

We had started always having some animal blood in stock a few dozen years ago - god only knew why. It did come in handy in situations like this one. I supposed that it was similar to the soothing effect of hot cocoa on humans. I opened the small freezer, put aside the frozen vegetables that hid the blood from plain view, and took out a portion of grizzly bear blood. I put it in the microwave and waited for a few seconds, until the blood was completely defrosted and warm enough for Emmett to drink it. After I had removed the blood from the microwave I put it in a sturdy metal cup and gave it to my son.

"Emmett?" I asked. He lifted his head. "Yeah?" His voice still sounded unhappy, but he seemed to have calmed down quite a bit. "I'll go and find Rose now. Just wait here and try not to goof" I explained and left the room. I walked down the hallway until I reached the door to Alice' room. I had a feeling that this is where I would be able to find Rosalie. I knocked. "Come in" Alice high-pitched voice called. I turned the knob on the door and pushed it open. As I had expected, Rosalie was sitting next to her sister on the beige sofa. She was sobbing even worse than Emmett had. Alice hugged her tightly.

"Rosalie?" She lifted her head and I smiled. "Now, I really don't want to accuse you of anything because I don't actually know what happened. I am sure you had your reasons for fighting with Emmett - I just want you to know that he is crying in you room and that he seems to be pretty convinced that this was the end and you don't love him anymore. He also is positive that it's all his fault because he started yelling at you. I have a hard time convincing him otherwise, but I'm sure that there was some misunderstanding. Could you maybe tell him that you do still love him? Because I assume that you do" I requested.

Rosalie looked more upset with every word. "No! He's such an idiot sometimes. How can he think that?" she exclaimed and got up from the couch. "I'll have to tell him to stop" she said as she ran out of the room. "Well, that was easy. I'll see you later, Alice" I said shrugging at my daughter, who was staring after Rosalie with her mouth wide open. She didn't react, so I just sighed and shrugged again before I left the room.

Since I seemed to have taken care of the worst, I decided not to let Angela and Ben wait any longer. When I arrived where I had left them, I found them sitting on the stairs, talking to each other. "I'm sorry that you had to wait, but I really think it was good that somebody intervened. It was all a big misunderstanding. I hope it didn't take too long" I apologized, but they both immediately assured me that it was no problem. "Well, then let's see if we can find her here" I suggested and proceeded to walk towards the guestroom she was staying in.

* * *

 _Angela's Pov._

It really must have been quite an argument, because it took several minutes until Esme came back. Ben and I had spent the time sitting on the stairs talking about our future roommate. Neither of us really knew what to expect, but we were both looking forward to meeting Bella. Esme had made it sound like she was a sweet person and I thought that it was kind of cool that she was from abroad - I had never met anyone from Switzerland, after all and all I knew about the country that they had mountains and chocolate. When Esme came back, we continued our search of Bella.

While we walked past various doors, Esme explained who lived where. As I had already suspected, Rosalie and Emmett and Alice and Jasper were each sharing a room. The couples had both been together for quite a long time. They had all already been in a relationship when I first met them two years ago and it didn't look like that would change anytime soon. When we arrived at Bella's room, Esme knocked on the door. We waited for a few moments, but nothing happened. Esme shrugged.

"Doesn't look like she's here. We could ask Alice. Maybe she knows where Bella is. The two of them seem to get along pretty well - as different as they might be, but I know that Alice thinks very highly of her" Esme proposed. That surprised me. The Cullens usually kept to themselves. To us other students they were normally quite distanced. It was a shame, really. The kids all seemed like decent people - except Edward maybe. He could be quite rude. Rosalie seemed a little cold, but when she was around her family, she also looked like a nice person.

Maybe this was what Esme had meant when she had said that Bella had a way of wrapping everybody around her finger. We arrived at the door to Alice and Jasper's room and Esme knocked. This time it didn't take long for someone to open the door. After only one or two seconds, Alice looked at us through the opened door. She was a lot shorter than all of us. The contrast was especially stark because I was so tall. There was more than a foot difference between our heights.

"Hello, come in. How can I help?" she asked excitedly and hugged her mother. I thought that I'd heard Esme mutter "worse than a toddler", but I wasn't completely sure. It made me smile. We entered the room. It looked almost identical to the apartment we were staying in. One of the walls was painted in a dark purple - we weren't allowed to paint our walls - and there was only one door leading out of the "living room", but besides that I couldn't spot any differences.

"Why are you such a wild child, Alice?" she sighed, clearly audible this time. "I always thought showing affection for one's mother was a good thing" Alice replied. "And I appreciate the affection and assure you that I love you too. Actually, what we are here for is that we can't seem to find Bella. Do you have any idea where she could be?" Esme asked. Alice thought about the question for a moment. It looked funny. She wrinkled her tiny nose and furrowed her brow while scratching her head.

"I could imagine that she went down to the basement. To play the piano or dance maybe? Why are you asking?" Alice suggested. "I could have figured _that_ out myself... But anyway... I managed to find appropriate roommates for her. Angela and Ben agreed to share their apartment with Bella and now they would of course like to meet her. We just haven't managed to find her yet" Esme explained. Alice nodded. "That's great. You'll love her, I'm sure" she said to us. "Thanks munchkin" Esme thanked her daughter. "See you later Mom. And you guys I'll see tomorrow. Have fun with Bella" Alice said and we left the room.

"Down to the basement then" Esme announced while we started walking down the stairs. Five sets of stairs, three doors and three minutes later we arrived in the basement. Esme hesitated for a moment, then she opened the heavy wooden door that lead to the multi-purpose rooms where we figured Bella might be. We stepped into the room and immediately all froze and stared at the girl inside - Isabella, I assumed. It almost looked like she was flying. I had to blink several times to make sure that all of this wasn't an illusion. After several seconds, nothing had changed, so this was probably real, but I still found it hard to believe.

Of course I knew that she wasn't actually flying - she was dancing. She apparently also hadn't noticed our arrival yet. It looked like her mind was miles away and she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings. I was fascinated by her.

When I had been a little girl, I had desperately wanted to be a dancer - what little girl didn't have that dream - but it turned out that I was utterly untalented, so my dream never came true. My parents had often taken me to ballet performances and I had even taken lessons for a short while, but my total lack of talent became apparent very soon, so my career as a dancer had ended only a few months after it had started. As I got older, it turned out that I probably would never be an athlete - I lacked coordination and the only sport I wasn't horrible at was running.

After watching Bella for a few more seconds, I recognized the music and suddenly, the choreography seemed familiar too. I couldn't remember what the piece was called, but I very clearly remembered going to a ballet recital back home in California where this had been performed - it must have been when I was maybe nine or ten years old. I tried to recall its name, but I found it hard to concentrate. The girl was stunningly beautiful and she was an amazing dancer.

 _The dying swan_ , I suddenly remembered. That was the name of the piece. It was one of my mom's favorites - she could go on about it for hours. I had only seen it being performed live once before (that one time in California) and I had enjoyed it then, but this was completely different. Bella's rendition was special - never before had I seen something as graceful, sad, and gorgeous as this. This wasn't just any ballerina dancing any solo. No, this was a story. Isabella was a swan, her arms were her wings, the hardwood floor was the shore of a lake - and this swan's life would come to a tragic end.

Bella still didn't seem to have become aware of us. She was completely absorbed in the dance. I was almost sure that she also didn't see the multi-purpose room - she probably saw the lake shore, just like I did. I was almost glad that we had stayed unnoticed. This way I could watch her dancing for a little longer. I could probably spend hours standing here, but I knew that the piece was almost over. The swan was about to die. Only now I noticed that I was crying. For a second, I glanced at Ben and saw that he, too, had watery eyes.

The dancer sunk to the ground. It was over. The music faded away. I only now actually saw Bella as a human being. She had dark brown hair that was tied up in a bun on top of her head and was wearing a dark blue leotard and pair of used-looking pointe shoes. Her fair skin was a stark contrast to the color of the leotard and she looked a little like snow white - with dark hair, very pale skin and red lips. But describing her as a fairytale character didn't seem quite right. She looked too mature and not naïve enough to fit the role.

She had a very petite body, almost a little too skinny for my taste. Bella was relatively tall with very long legs. It was remarkable how much strength she had in them, since they really were thin. The tension in her entire body was clearly visible. The piece had ended about a minute ago, but the didn't even think about loosening her muscles. Then she suddenly lifted her head and spotted us standing by the door. "Oh, um... Good evening" she said. Her voice sounded very friendly and she had an endearing British accent. She didn't look as relaxed and happy as she had before, while she had been dancing. Her features looked harder and she looked tense. Her eyes looked alert - almost as if she expected us to attack her any second.

"Hello Bella. That was stunning. What's the name of that piece?" Esme wanted to know. "It's called the _dying swan_. It's a solo piece that was written for Anna Pawlowa in 1905. The music is from _the Carnival of the Animals_ and it was written in reference to Tschaikowski's famous _Swan Lake_. It's quite short and very recognizable, which is part of the reason why it is so popular. It's beautiful, isn't it?" Bella explained, seemingly without even having to think. "It really is" Ben said.

"May I introduce you to Angela and Ben?" Esme asked Bella. She nodded. "Of course." "Well, I told you earlier today that I was looking for a suitable roommate for you. Angela and Ben told me that they'd be perfectly fine with you moving in with them, so I figured that it would be good if you could meet each other." Bella smiled. "I'm Bella. It's nice to meet you." She still kept a distance and while her voice was bright and friendly, there was a cool undertone to it. Although, had Esme not explained the circumstances, I might not even have noticed.

I glanced at her stomach. Of course there wasn't anything to see - that would take several more weeks, if not months, if she didn't get an abortion, that was. But I just couldn't help it. I forced myself to look at her face again. Carefully, I stretched out a hand towards her. She hesitated first and looked at the hand slightly warily, but then she shook it. She smiled at me and proceeded to also shaking Ben's hand. Esme had been right. I had only just met her and I knew practically nothing about her, but I had already taken her to my heart. She seemed to be one of those people everybody liked - or at least I couldn't imagine how anyone would dislike her.

"As I said, it's great to meet you and I very much appreciate your offer to share an apartment with me, but I really don't want to intrude. It I inconvenience you in any way, I can move in with Mike Newton instead. I keep causing extra work for Esme and I really don't want to, so just let me know if..." she protested, but Esme interrupted her. "Bella... I _really_ don't mind. And I honestly don't think that he would be a good roommate for you. He wouldn't realize that you're not like ... I don't know ... Tanya Denali. I'm sure that he's a smart boy, he's just not particularly sensitive" she sighed.

Bella turned to us. "And you are sure that this is okay for you?" she wanted to know. "Positive. Angela and I sleep in the same bedroom, so nobody ever uses the other one. It would be great to have some more company. Right, Angela?" Ben assured her and I nodded. "We would love to have you with us, Bella." She still didn't seem 100% convinced, but her protest softened. "Okay, I guess I'm outvoted. But if I ever start bothering you, let me know and I'll move in with Mike" she gave in. I laughed. "That's great, Bella. We really are looking forward to it" Ben said smiling.


	20. Pain

**Hello again! Thanks for your kind words, follows, and favorites and happy reading!**

* * *

 **Pain**

 _Sunday 11-17-11/9:14 p. m._

 _The school, Forks, WA_

 _Edward's Pov._

I was along in my room. The rest of the family were doing couple stuff, so I had decided that it was best for me to go back to my room. But ever since I was here on my own, I hadn't been able to stop thinking. It was overwhelming and I just couldn't make sense of it.

The past few days had been the most confusing of my life. I knew that the entire family felt this way, but I wasn't sure if they were aware how much meeting Bella had affected me. I tried not to show too much concern - because that would result in an avalanche of questions and hundreds of jokes from Emmett's side. And that was something I could definitely do without. But even if I had wanted to talk about it, I'd have no idea what I had to say or who to speak to. The entire situation was complicated and I really didn't know what to think.

When Alice first had a vision of Bella leaving the country, I had been very upset. Of course, I soon after had found out that she'd only be gone for a few days before returning to the school, but that didn't change anything about the fact that the thought of her disappear out of our lives had troubled me. And even now that I knew that I was going to see her again before the end of next week, the thought of her being across the Atlantic was painful. It was a strange kind of pain - I had never felt like this before.

Of course, the pain wasn't of a physical nature. What it reminded me of most was the faint memory of the grief I had felt after my parents' deaths, but it still was different. It felt like something was being taken from me, but I didn't know what to do with that feeling. And in a strange way, that made me angry. I shouldn't have to deal with this - after all, I was still Edward Cullen, the guy who had access to all the information in the world. I always knew what people were thinking, so I was normally very good at making sense of things.

That in itself was another issue. Before Bella, I had never met anybody who's mind I hadn't been able to read. That had always allowed me to see myself as some kind of a omniscient demigod (which might be arrogant, but also was great for my ego). Bella had forced me to change my worldview because as it turned out, I wasn't actually all-knowing. This was probably the most confusing part of the entire story. Part of me felt guilty for having been so arrogant, but a very prominent part of me was almost angry at Bella for robbing me of my title as the "great all-wise Edward Cullen".

It was ridiculous because I knew that she hadn't in fact done anything (I assumed that she didn't block me intentionally - and even if she did, I couldn't hold it against her. After all, it was perfectly understandable that someone might not want a stranger to know what they were thinking). Merely crossing my way obviously wasn't a crime, but part of me couldn't help resenting her for it. That in turn was another problem. Strange as it may sound, I had a hard time actually being angry at her. The worst thing about it was that I had absolutely no idea why that was. The entire situation just didn't make sense.

Of course, I wasn't known for being particularly friendly. I wasn't very forthcoming, nor was I exceptionally sympathetic and that had never really bothered me, but for some reason - god only knew why - I had very recently felt and urge to better myself. I couldn't tell what had caused this need to stop being a jerk, but the only possible explanation I could come up with was Bella. She was the only thing in our lives that had changed recently and I had seen a pretty rapid change in Rosalie's personality over the course of this weekend - and that change I knew to be caused by Bella.

It was strange because I barely knew her. I hadn't ever talked to her directly and I only knew about her what my family had told me. But some irrational part of me would do anything to make her happy without knowing why and an even more irrational part wanted to be even more extreme in my rude behavior. It seemed like a rebellious teenager had been hiding inside of me for decades and now he apparently thought it necessary to make a sudden appearance. The angry, rude part of me currently still had the upper hand, but I could feel how this new, nicer version of myself was getting more and more powerful and I didn't know how to feel about that.

All I knew was that yesterday, when she had been so lifeless after her breakdown, I had felt hurt. It was almost like some tiny part of me had died. Something inside of me broke and I was still trying to figure out what exactly it had been. I had reason to believe that it wouldn't have bothered me much had I seen anybody else collapse like that - somehow, yesterday had been different. The whole situation was completely incomprehensible. I had thought that I, after all those years, had figured out what life was all about, but evidently that wasn't the case.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to hate Bella for coming here in the first place and causing this entire mess or if I should be glad that she showed me that I might have been wrong all along. It certainly would be easier to hate her, but I wasn't sure if it was the right thing. That made it hard to make a decision and I figured that being as neutral as I could until I had come to a conclusion was probably my best shot. But as hard as I tried to stay impartial, my mind kept switching from one extreme to the other. I admired her one moment and detested her the next.

But I wasn't the only one who had changed since Friday. Alice had become awfully quiet. She sometimes still had little outbursts of quirkiness, but she was nowhere near as lively as she had been a few days ago. Finding out that she hadn't been able to foresee something like this happening had been hard on her. I knew that Jasper worried. He had never seen her laugh as little as she currently did and his sorrow pulled all of us down. Alice had cried several times over the past few days and that was something I had never witnessed before. It broke my heart to see her suffer like this.

Even Rosalie had changed. She didn't treat the people around her the same anymore. She was different. Politer. Friendlier. Only a few days, she had often seemed cold and she just loved snapping at people. Finding reasons for that it had always been one of her greatest talents. Towards her family, on the other hand, she had always been very respectful and loyal. I knew that she would give her life for each and every one of us. In that respect, we were very similar.

If she ever were to need help, she could definitely count on me - and I was sure that it would be the same vice versa. But as much as we secretly had each others' backs, we didn't usually get along very well. We were constantly squabbling and insulting each other and we had a long history of doing so. We had a love-hate relationship, but somehow, hate usually had the upper hand. It was as one would expect, really, as we both had a reputation for being exceptionally rude.

But as they so often did nowadays, my thoughts went back to Bella. As I said, I spent much of my time hating her, but in some special way, I liked her a lot. For the first time in decades I felt genuine compassion and I worried about her wellbeing. I wasn't sure if I should be more worried about caring about her so much about usually lacking sympathy. I wasn't sure what had caused me to become such a terrible person and maybe I didn't even want to know. There probably was some reason, whatever it might be.

Bella was an intriguing person. I knew that I wasn't the only one who felt that way - Alice had been obsessed with her ever she first saw her in one of her visions. But it seemed like she had a different effect on me. Maybe it was because I couldn't read her mind and because that made her very different form all the other people I had met during my lifetime. The only type of insight into her mind I had came from Jasper's thoughts. I knew how much she really suffered. I knew that she lived in constant fear. And still she somehow managed to upkeep a façade of perfect friendliness and courtesy. I was impressed with it.

It probably would have been much easier for her to be me more like Rosalie or me and to be ride and cold towards other people. To ignore what people thought of her and distance herself from her peers. But she didn't. Maybe it was because this was the way she was raised. Maybe she knew that people didn't like getting snapped at. Maybe it was because this was just what she was used to. Maybe she wanted to distance herself from rude people she didn't like. Or maybe she was just genuinely a good person. Ultimately, I didn't know, but I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

Maybe all of those things were reasons, but I wasn't sure if they were sufficient to explain her behavior. At least not in my eyes. She somehow was different. Already when I met her for the first time, I had sensed that she was special. Even before I had ever exchanged a single word with her. I had only gotten a short glimpse of her face and realized how it was strangely silent around her. It had taken me the fraction of a second to realize that I couldn't her thoughts. But there was more than just her differentness - she was extraordinary in other ways. I just still struggled to identify what exactly those were.

And the more I thought about her and the entire situation, the more time passed, the clearer it seemed that I had been right all along. She was special and deserved to be seen and treated accordingly. She deserved somebody who fulfilled every wish she had. But although she probably deserved it more than anybody else in the world, it seemed like there was nobody to treat her the way she should be treated. She seemed to be completely alone and that was just goddamn wrong. It was awful. It upset me.

Usually, I didn't care about anyone but my family, but somehow, Bella had changed that. I wasn't as indifferent as I usually was. I genuinely cared about her wellbeing. I still barely knew her. I had never really spent any time with her - partly because I had an irrational fear of hurting her. I knew that it would absolutely destroy me to know that my own stupidity somehow had made her suffering worse, so I tried to keep a distance. I didn't know what she thought of me - or if she even had given my persona much thought - but a surprisingly big part of me really wanted her to like me.

That part also wanted to do everything possible to make her notice and care for me. It also made me want to protect her, no matter what the cost. I wanted to keep her safe at all times - even though I knew that that was practically impossible or at least ethically questionable. And there was one more problem with spending a lot of time with Bella. It worried me.

Her blood. It had the sweetest scent I had ever smelled. It was the main reason why we had spent so little time in a room with each other. It was why I had been forced to disappear so suddenly after I encountered her in the entrance hall on Friday. Fleeing the room had been the only way of keeping the monster inside of me under control. I hated this side of me. The effect that her blood had on me hadn't really changed since then, although I wasn't taken aback by it as much anymore. However, I still preferred avoiding her over accidentally ending her life and I didn't expect that to change anytime soon. Keeping a distance would be my best option.

This made it really hard for me to protect her physically, but I still couldn't help keeping an eye on her. I was constantly watching the minds of those around her to make sure that she was doing okay. Of course, I knew that that probably wasn't the correct thing to do and that it most certainly hurt her privacy, but I just couldn't stop doing it. My brain was 100% convinced that something would happen the second I stopped paying attention. And I felt like I was slowly going crazy. I had never been a particularly paranoid person, but these days I was persistently fearing for Bella's life. I wasn't sure what it was, but something inside of me told me that she wasn't safe.

There were so many feelings I had never experienced before and I had no idea what to make of it. Where had they come from and what did they mean? Frankly, I was terrified, but I also knew that there probably wasn't much I could do against them. Taking big strides towards the future was my best bet, so that was what I was going to do.


	21. Allies

**Hello! It's been a while, but I finally found the time to sit down and continue translating. Sorry about the long break - I will try to be a little faster next time**

* * *

 **Allies**

 _Sunday 11-17-11/3:31 p.m._

 _The school, Forks, WA_

 _Rosalie's Pov._

I was trying to read a book, but I just couldn't manage to concentrate on the words. Whenever I reached the bottom of a page I couldn't remember any of its contents and had to start over again. My thoughts kept wandering back to Bella and it seemed like nothing I tried could distract me from her. The whole situation had proofed difficult for me to handle - maybe even more so than I had expected. Being faced with all the struggles I had thought to have put behind me overwhelmed me. Bella constantly reminded me of my own past and the old demons had come back to haunt me.

Her being pregnant made the entire situation even harder to stomach. She had everything I had ever wanted. A baby was all I had ever wished for, yet it was the one thing I could not have. In three or four months - at the latest - it would be visible to everyone. Every day, she would inadvertently rub it in my face. If she decided against an abortion, that was. The possibility on an abortion was another thing I struggled to even think about. I didn't know how I would react in that type of scenario. Would I be able to look her in the eye again?

All my life I had maintained a very solid pro-life stance, but I wasn't sure if Bella shared that opinion. And was it really my place to judge and make a decision? Did I have a right to tell this young girl what she had to do? I wasn't sure. It was hard for me to tell how Bella might react to the changed circumstances and how she would manage this pregnancy that was in all probability unwanted. She had a big, tender heart, that I was sure of. That wouldn't make choosing an option easier. I was almost certain that she would decide to have the baby if she only listened to her heart.

However, she also seemed to be a woman of reason and responsibility. There was no way Bella was going to make a decision solely based on her feelings. And objectively seen, having a baby at her age and in this type of situation was frankly insane. I was aware of that, but I struggled with the idea of a budding life being ended before it ever even got a chance to blossom - but Bella was the one who had the final say and since I had pledged to be her friend, I intended to support her regardless of her decision.

Another deciding factor in the decision-making process was her family. From all I had heard they were catholic and were rather conservative. That made me think that Bella had grown up in an environment that was largely pro-life and anti-abortion. However, I had also found out that the family was quite well-known and very influential. They seemed to get a lot of media attention. A teenage pregnancy in such a prestigious family would make a pretty little scandal. The press would go after her like hounds if they found out about it and an abortion was a very effective way of preventing that.

I just really hoped that her parents were going to be supportive of her. I wasn't too concerned because Bella seemed to have a great relationship with them - whenever she talked about them, her eyes began to shine - but unconventional situations sometimes brought out nasty sides of people's personalities. I prayed that Bella's environment would provide her with the help and support she would definitely need in the coming months. I sighed. Thinking and rethinking the situation just made me even more anxious that I already was. Trying to figure out what the future would hold for Bella was a hopeless endeavor (I was no Alice, after all), so I gave up and tried to find something else to think about.

My own life had taken a one-eighty since Bella had showed up at the school just a few days ago. She had galvanized me and probably wasn't even aware of it. After many decades of ignorance and arrogance, she had caused me to feel sympathy for others. Cheesy as it may sound, Bella had changed my life for the better without even trying and I was forever thankful. Though the unfortunate circumstances of her arrival at the school had once again highlighted the injustices in our world, they had made more much more aware of the lucky situation I was in.

Life was good. In Emmett I had found a partner who loved me more than his own life, my siblings were the best friends and allies one could ask for, and my Carlisle and Esme, my parents, took care of me and looked out for my wellbeing. I had had the chance to receive a world-class education, unlimited time to pursue new hobbies and activities, a great car, and the opportunity to travel the world (with some - mostly sun-related - restrictions). I was beautiful, forever young, and intelligent. Most of the time, I was kind as well. I was strong and self-confident.

In short, I had everything I needed and much more. My life looked like it came straight out of a storybook and while it wasn't faultless, it was as close as it could ever get. My last days as a human had certainly been far from being perfect and I still dealt with the consequences today, but it was time to move on into the future. Dwelling on the past would not do anyone any good. Besides, I wasn't the only one who ever became a victim of rape - not by long shot. Suddenly, I didn't see myself as an isolated case. Bella's arrival had once again made it very clear that I was one out of hundreds of thousands. One out of millions, probably.

I felt obligated to help Bella process her own trauma, but I had no idea how to go about it. There was a lot that could go wrong. What if my attempt backfired, she misunderstood my efforts and I scared her even more? I wanted to avoid that at any cost. Was it better to leave her alone and let her figure it out herself? Maybe a little peace and quiet was all she really wanted? To find out I'd have to ask her and I couldn't imagine how I could do that. There was no way I would just walk up to her and blurt out that question.

What made everything considerably more difficult was that we still barely knew her. We didn't know what she liked or what would make life easier or her. Learning more about her would take time, but I felt that just sitting around and waiting for things to get better was one of the worst things we could do in this situation. The whole thing felt like the worst catch-22 anyone could imagine.

"Rosalie? Are you alright?" a voice asked next to me. I turned my head to look at the speaker. It was Carlisle, who was sitting on the couch next to me, looking worried. I hadn't even been aware that he had entered the room. How long had he been right beside me without me noticing? I put my book aside and turned to face him. His dark gold eyes stared into mine. I felt like he was staring straight through me. It made me feel uncomfortable, so I averted my eyes.

Carlisle carefully put his hands on my cheeks and turned my face back towards him. "Something's not okay. I don't have to be Jasper to see that. You know that there is nothing you cannot talk about with me" he told me with a reassuring smile. His eyes had their normal shine. They were radiating compassion and love. I couldn't help smiling. "Yes, I know that, Dad" I replied. As always, he was pleased that I had addressed him as my father and he was visibly proud. "Good. What is bothering you so much?" he asked.

I sighed. "Um, you know, I'm not exactly. Sure... I guess, I'm just a bit confused and overwhelmed by the whole situation. Everything came on very suddenly, quickly, and unexpectedly. It is strange how all of us seem to have undergone some changes in the matter of a couple of days, just because Bella moved here. And I guess that I am the one who is most affected by the changed circumstances. Her arrival made me reconsider all of my priorities and my view on life is completely different now. It is crazy - almost a little scary, to be honest. I mean, I'm thankful that I finally realized how blessed we are to be able to live the lives we were given and I am very appreciative of all we have."

I paused to think for a few seconds. Carlisle patiently looked at me. "Well, I would still much rather be human, but I feel like I'm not bothered by my existence anymore. After all, I wouldn't have you, my family, if I weren't a vampire and there are a lot of people I would have never had the chance to meet if I weren't who you made me so many decades ago." Carlisle nodded.

"It's astounding, really" I continued. "The extent of the change in my personality, I mean. I always figured that finding a mate was the only thing that could so fundamentally change us, but it seems like I was wrong all along. Bella certainly isn't my mate, but I would argue that she has changed me at least as much as Emmett did when I first met him - maybe even more, it's hard to tell. But I'm thankful. It's a change for the better, I'd say. Seeing her so vulnerable on Saturday morning was a wakeup call and I honestly wouldn't want to go back if I could" I explained.

He didn't say anything. For a little while, the room was almost completely silent. Nobody said anything, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable either. After a few minutes I just shook my head in resignation. I really didn't know what to make of this. My long blond hair flew about the room and it stirred up some dust particles. They looked mesmerizing as they reflected the light that was coming through the window. Even after so many years, seeing them glimmer never ceased to amaze me. A ray of sunlight hit my left arm and the skin and it started sparkling.

The day had been rather rainy up until now, so I was surprised to see that the sun had found a way through the thick layers of clouds that usually covered Forks. While this lack of sunlight made our lives much easier, I did have to admit that I missed good weather and blue skies. Those things were much too rare around here. I sighed, got up, and walked over to the window. Most of this morning's clouds had disappeared and the remaining few were white and fluffy. This sudden improvement seemed almost ironic. I felt as if the sun was laughing at me. At the same time, however, the rays of sunlight that reached my skin were warm and were consoling.

"Rose?" Carlisle asked. I turned around. He smiled at me. "I think you're right. I understand what you mean." I nodded. "It's all so confusing. I don't know what my priorities are anymore, what I should do next" I said. Carlisle sighed.

"You know, sometimes I just feel so powerless. As if all the diseases and ailments out there were almighty. And yet, I am used to being able to do something to help people. In most cases, I am able to heal them or at least improve their situation. But this time is different. Bella is different. Science has come far in the recent past, but even with all the new research, hers still is a hopeless case. There currently isn't anything I can do to cure her from that horrible neurodegenerative disease she was born with. Not even anything to stop it or at least slow it down.

But I can't just sit back and watch it happen. There has to be a way to help her and I have to find it. I am not going to wait for her death. Witnessing all her senses deteriorating until she can't even walk or speak anymore just isn't something I am willing to do. It just isn't right - especially since she has already done so much for this family. You're not the only one who was changed for the better. I feel the same way." He paused and furrowed his brow.

"It's... You know, I think Edward likes her. Not that he ever told me anything in that direction, but whenever he talks about her or even hears her name mentioned, his face lightens up and his eyes begin to shine. You know just as well as I do that this isn't your brothers normal behavior and I think this might just be something a little more serious. What if she is his mate? I don't think he has ever considered that possibility and she certainly has no idea, but this doesn't make the situation any easier." He pinched his nose.

If the really are destined to be mates, I can't let her die. It would devastate him. There isn't anything I can do for her, but if I don't do anything she'll die a slow and painful death. There is no good way out of this. It would be slow and insidious. She'd lose more and more of her cognitive abilities. First, she would go blind, then she'd lose her hearing. She'd gradually lose the ability to move. It's the type of death you wouldn't even wish on your worst enemies.

And that's just the physiological side of it - there definitely are some mental health issues as well. I am no psychiatrist and I don't know how she is feeling, but I am positive that she is struggling with the current situation. There probably are a lot of emotions she's bottling up and I don't know if she has anyone to talk to. This can't be good. She's more talented as an actress than is good for her. I am convinced that she even managed to fool her own mother - and the woman is an excellent psychologist. If Mrs. Swan knew about the emotions of her daughter, she certainly wouldn't have let her come here. No mother in her right mind would" he told me.

Carlisle usually wasn't one for long, emotional speeches, but it was evident how desperate and hopeless he was. I went back over to the couch and leaned my head against his shoulder. He sighed and shook his resignation. "I just... What am I supposed to do next? How can I continue my life in normal way when I know that there is nothing I can do for this innocent young girl?" His voice broke. I put my arm around him. "I wish I could tell you, dad, but I guess we really all don't know. The only thing we can do now is to stay positive and focus on the things we actually can do to make Bella's life easier. I'm sure that will go a long way."

I forced a smile and patted him on the shoulder. "And dad, I know that it's been a while, but have gone to medical school before. If there is anything I can do to help you with research and those things, let me know. One person alone can't do this - and two probably can't either, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt to have some support."


	22. In the Library

**Hello once again! This chapter took a little longer than I intended because between lots of work for school and a very persistent stomach flu, there just wasn't much time for this type of thing. I also had to do some more rearanging and decided to update my research. In the name of scientific accuracy, I even quote my sources: Everything related to NCL comes from that one google scholar article. Thanks for all the kind words!**

* * *

 **In the Library**

 _Sunday 11-17-11/9:03 p.m._

 _The school, Forks, WA_

 _Esme's Pov._

Bella's reaction to the changed circumstances was confusing me. Of course, I hadn't been expecting extraordinarily aggressive or emotional behavior - because that just wasn't what Bella was like - but it still surprised me just how calm she had managed to remain. According to Carlisle, she hadn't shown any emotion during their conversation and even when I had talked to her after, she had been very calm and composed. And sure, I hadn't expected her to take apart Carlisle's office or anything of the kind, but her calmness made it very difficult to tell what she was really feeling.

Now, in hindsight it became increasingly clear that her reaction had been exactly what we should have expected. Bella wasn't just going to put down her mask and expose herself. I was reasonably sure that it had taken her years of hard work to create the personality she showed to the rest of the world and to perfect her behavior to be as unsuspicious as she possibly could be. Losing her composure for just a short moment was simply not worth it. However, that didn't make her situation much better. Bella might look perfect and absolutely calm, but I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know what was going on inside of her head at the moment.

Carlisle was also suffering. The hopelessness of her situation had made him quite desperate and whenever my husband was suffering, I was too. There was nothing he could do for Bella at the moment and that was more difficult for him than he had expected. He had taken it into his head to safe the girl, but he couldn't help her. That was really hard on him. Carlisle just wasn't used to being this helpless, so he didn't know how to deal with the feeling.

Bella was going to depart for Switzerland tomorrow and maybe that was for the better. It wasn't that we wanted to get rid of her - that wasn't the case at all - but I felt that some distance would be good for all of us. It was a shame that she already had to leave before she ever could get settled here, but I figured that it would give us all some time and space to reflect and calm down. Things had gotten pretty heated around here, and I was sure that this wasn't the best or most productive kind of environment for any of us - including Bella.

I desperately hoped that Bella would find some comfort at home. I felt the need to help and support her even now, but all I could do at the moment was to hope for the best and pray that her parents would take kindly to the news. It was hard to tell what it was going to be like because I obviously didn't know her parents, but from all I had heard, they seemed to be genuinely good people. Bella adored them. Whenever she talked of them, her eyes had special shine and there was so much love and longing in her voice. It was obvious, how much she loved and respected her parents. There seemed to be unconditional adoration and mutual trust.

It was something that only rarely could be seen nowadays. Young people of Bella's age almost never spoke so positively of their parents. Of course, teenagers had always been rebellious and puberty often made it hard to relate to parents - I had seen generations of teenagers grow up and turn into fine people - but there seemed to be less communication within the families nowadays than a few decades ago. It was a shame, really, how little appreciation some young people showed for the years of protection. Of course, I knew that that not every child had a proper upbringing and that sometimes, matters could get quite complicated.

I wasn't sure what life was like for Bella's family in Switzerland. As far as I knew, they were fairly well-known people and Bella, as the daughter of two famous parents, probably had grown up in the public eye. The press seemed to follow the family quite closely. I couldn't imagine what that must be like for Bella. I didn't think of her as someone who had to get a lot of very public attention to be happy. I was pretty sure that the contrary was the case. Bella seemed to be someone who liked some alone time, to think about life, read a good book, or make some music.

I hoped she would still be able to do those things in a few months. I hope people left her some peace and quiet. I could imagine, that if the media were to find out about all of this, they would probably want to report on it and they probably would lose any decency and respect trying to report on the latest scandal. Because I was sure that it would be one. Isabella Marie Swan pregnant. A sixteen year-old girl with a proper catholic upbringing, from a respectable family. This was something that didn't happen every day - especially not in Europe, as their teenage pregnancy rates were much lower than they were around here.

This also just didn't seem much like her. Bella was a reasonable, intelligent girl. She wouldn't make rash, irresponsible decisions and accidentally get pregnant. I knew that and I was sure that the Swiss media did too. What would they think? Wouldn't it just make them look for answers even more fervently? They would start digging deeper and deeper. Her family and friends wouldn't have a minute of peace until they were satisfied with their findings.

Bella was a good, sincere, and admirable young woman. She seemed to care more about others than herself. That was of course very noble and something that deserved much praise, but it also made me wonder if she might be overdoing it a bit. This extent of selflessness simply couldn't be good for her. From what I had seen, it seemed like her feeling of self-worth was quite low. Her appearance seemed very confident at first sight, but the more time I had spent with her, the more I had started to think that she might just be a very good actress.

Every person with an ample amount of sense would look for help at this point - or at least accept it when it was offered - but Bella was very vehement in refusing any type of aid. In my eyes, that wasn't brave or strong, but rather masochistic and a testimony of her immaturity - although I felt that I couldn't really hold that against her. She was only 16, after all.

Obviously, Bella had just found out about the pregnancy a few hours ago, but there had to have been some incident. Maybe the reason why she had changed her mind and come here in an almost escape-like way was that she wanted to avoid the attention that it might bring. She wanted to protect herself and her loved ones from this type of terror. There must have been something she didn't want the public to find out. I really hoped things would go well. There already was more than enough she had to deal with. Any additional pressure might bring her to her breaking point.

Of course, we didn't know very much about her - she was technically still a stranger to us, although it certainly didn't feel that way. To me it almost seemed like I had known her for years. I was quite obvious that she tended to hide her problems, fears, and worries from other people. This made trying to help her quite difficult because I had no idea what she needed right now. Bottling it all up like that just wasn't good for her. As long as she didn't come to terms with the reality of things and start dealing with her emotions, there was no chance for her to heal and start over completely. And that was probably something she needed desperately.

Bella might seem like the perfect girl at first sight, but that was just a façade. In reality, she was far from faultless. I wouldn't have believed that a few days ago, but it was very clear now and that was an important realization. Her beautiful face and striking intelligence were blinding and it had taken a lot of reflection and some rather difficult conversations to see behind the appearance. Sure, Bella would deserve to be perfect, but she just wasn't - and maybe that was for the better. Perfection could be a bit of a curse, which was probably why we all had our little vices and flaws. After all, the world would be a much more boring place if everyone was perfect.

I shook my head and sighed - that was a lesson some of my children still had to learn. Decades of learning and growing (not physically, but personally, of course) had taught them a lot and made them better people (for the most part), but they hadn't gotten rid of all the remaining immaturity. The kids would always be teenagers and there wasn't much they or any of us could do about it.

At the moment, it was Edward who worried me the most. My youngest and at the same time oldest son had been awfully quiet lately. Jasper seemed very convinced, that he had developed a bit of a crush on our newest student. I wasn't quite sure how I should feel about that. On one hand, I was obviously happy that he had found someone he liked and that she was such a nice and caring girl, but on the other hand I knew that this thing would be very difficult for both of them if they figured something out in the first place.

I really didn't want to say that it was impossible - because I didn't think it was - but it seemed like a bit of a mammoth task. It seemed uncertain if Bella would really understand. Edward had barely ever had anything to do with her. At this point, they had only ever really met twice and it even seemed like he was trying to avoid her. And that clearly contradicted the feelings he apparently had. It was all a little confusing. Maybe he was just scared of her reaction? I would have to ask him about him when I got the chance.

* * *

 _Emmett's Pov., the same evening_

I was standing in the middle of Carlisle's deserted private library and was looking around me quite helplessly. I had never made the conscious decision to come here and look for a book before - medical literature, reference works, and scientific encyclopedias didn't particularly interest me - so I was clueless as to how my father organized his large collection of books or where I might find what I was looking for. But even though I was aware that I would only understand a fraction of what the books said, I was here to read up on some of the things that my family had been discussing for the past few days. I was growing increasingly tired of feeling like a simpleton, whenever they started talking about Bella's health.

They kept repeating how badly she was doing, but I neither understood what exactly the problem was, nor why there wasn't anything they could do about it. All I knew was that she was somehow mortally ill. I slowly spun around, trying to orient myself. I still hadn't been able to see a system in Carlisle's collection. To me it just looked like a compilation of heavy and technical-looking books that had been put on random shelves. Just at that moment, one title caught my eye. _Type 1 Diabetes: Causes, Treatments, and Potential Complications._ That looked pretty good. I took it off the shelf, laid it on a table and continued my search.

With a new sense of confidence I looked at the hundreds of titles. I had found one, there had to be more. I definitely wanted to know more about that one disease she had - NCL - but I wasn't sure if there were any books about it in this library. After all, Carlisle had said that it was a very rare condition and I had the feeling that even my father didn't know very much about it. I would still try to find some more information.

The longer I looked at the shelves, the more I started seeing a system. There was one shelf with a number of different encyclopedias, lexica, and medical dictionaries. Another one seemed to have a focus on psychological things. The one to my right contained dozens of books about surgical procedures - that one was very expansive - and yet another was full with books about medical history. A large shelf to my left was all about anatomy. Then I spotted a rather large shelf that seemed to have a focus on all kinds of diseases - seemingly in alphabetical order. That was where the book about diabetes had been.

I stepped closer. This shelf seemed to be the most promising of them all. Reading through the titles, I quickly realized that there indeed was no book about NCL. However, at the very bottom I found a few books that might be relevant, namely _Hitherto Immedicable Diseases and Disorders, A-I_ , _Hitherto Immedicable Diseases J-Q_ , and _Hitherto Immedicable Diseases R-Z._ I shrugged. This probably was my best bet, so I took the one about the diseases J-Q from the shelf. What else was I looking for?

A book about pregnancy was probably a good idea, but I really didn't know where I was supposed to find a book about the topic. I couldn't imagine it being with the reams about illnesses or surgery. Psychology didn't quite seem like the right shelf and the encyclopedias probably wouldn't get me much farther either. Anatomy maybe? I turned around and started looking for a title that looked relevant. And sure enough - it didn't take long until I found an entire collection of books on the topic. Two of them were about complications, one about fetal development, one about childbirth, and then finally I found one with the title _Teen Pregnancy - Possible Complications, Dangers, and Psychological Backgrounds_. That was even better than I had expected.

I grabbed the three books and went over to Carlisle's desk. I put down the books and sat down in the armchair. It was super comfortable. First, I took the tome about diabetes. It was the one that sounded the least depressing. As I had already expected, I didn't understand large chunks of the text, but once I got through the first few chapters, I felt that my understanding of the disease had already improved a lot. Fortunately, I was a fast reader and it didn't take too long until I figured that I knew enough to follow future conversation. Of course, the book hadn't turned me into a lover of human medicine, but it had most definitely made me understand what many people found so fascinating. With every sentence I had read, my admiration of Carlisle increased. The sheer amount of knowledge he had acquired over the past decades was incredible.

Approximately two hours later, I put the book aside and sighed. It was quite clear that diabetes was no laughing matter. Some of the complications that had been described in the book were rather gruesome. I really didn't want to picture Bella with rotten toes or bleeding from the eyes - because as far as I understood, those were all things that could happen. Luckily, it seemed that diabetes could be managed very well and that patients could lead perfectly normal lives. Nowadays, being diagnosed with diabetes apparently was no catastrophe. I found that that was pretty reassuring.

For a moment, I just sat there and tried to process all the information - because the book had contained a lot. Then, after a couple of minutes, I sighed and grabbed the next one from the small pile. It was the one with all the immedicable diseases. I was optimistic about finding something relevant in there, but at the same time I was also a bit concerned about what I might learn. It sounded like a very depressing book. Why had someone decided that compiling all the incurable illnesses into three books was a good idea? To me that just sounded really disheartening.

I opened the book at the letter N and started searching the pages. As I had hoped, it didn't take long until I found something. The text was very technical and I understood even less than I had in the book about diabetes, but even I noticed a few sentences into the article that Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses was not something to be trifled with. Apparently it had first been described in 1903 and it was very rare. The book said something about it affecting approximately 1 out of every 100,000 people, with different studies resulting in different numbers. The text further stated that there were nine different types, all linked to different genes.

The different types caused symptoms to appear at different ages, but most of them seemed to affect infants and young children. There was not yet a cure, but there had recently been some experimental trials with different medications - some of which seemed to slow down the degeneration of the nerves, but there still was no consensus in the medical community as to how the disorder was to be treated. There seemed to be different symptoms for the different types, but they all caused a decrease in cognitive abilities, blindness, movement disorders, and epileptic seizures. Frankly, it did not sound good.

The article on NCL had been rather short, but contained a lot of information. I felt that what Carlisle had been telling us over the past couple of days suddenly made much more sense and I was starting to understand just why he was so desperate to find a way of helping Bella - after all, we couldn't expect any reliable treatment to be discovered in the near future. I shook my head, closed the book, and put it away. It was now completely dark outside. I glanced at my watch. 9:30 p.m.

I grabbed the last book - the one about teenage pregnancy. I wasn't sure what I wanted to get out of that one, but I figured that it couldn't hurt. "For doctors, students, and interested people" the first page said. I sighed in relief. Even though being a vampire had made me incredibly smart and given me a perfect photographic memory, it felt like my head was about to start spinning from all the medical terms. I took a look at the list of contents and flipped to a page that I thought might be interesting.

As I had expected, this was much easier to understand than the other two books. I understood almost everything and it all seemed to make sense, which made for a nice change. Most of the contents also sounded vaguely familiar. During the past few decades I had picked up quite an amount of facts about pregnancy. Obviously, teenage pregnancies were pretty much exactly the same as any other pregnancy. Still, it turned out that there were some rather grisly potential complications I didn't even want to think about. The part of the book that talked about the psychological backgrounds also was quite interesting.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I almost dropped the book. I spun around and looked directly into Carlisle's caramel eyes. He was smirking. "You're reading my books? I must admit that I've rarely ever been this surprised in my life" he smiled. I shrugged. "Looks like it. I do have to admit though, that I barely even understood half of what I read. But I still learned some pretty interesting things. I'm starting to see what you find so fascinating" I explained. Carlisle squeezed my shoulder. "I'm glad to hear it. But what made you come up here? You never seemed particularly interested in medical literature" he wanted to know.

"Good question. To be honest, I don't really know either. I guess, I was starting to become frustrated with myself. Whenever you talked about Bella with Rosalie or Edward, I just was never able to follow your conversations. It all didn't make any sense. I wanted to understand what the problem is. Of course, I am still no expert and will probably never be, but I'd say that I now understand considerably more. It's slowly coming together" I replied. Carlisle nodded. "Well, that's wonderful, dear son. I'm proud of you. Voluntarily sacrificing several hours to learn something new is a fantastic thing to do. What did you read?" he asked and glanced at the small stack of books.

He nodded approvingly. "Good choices. I believe, those are about the best books you could have picked to educate yourself about Bella's health. I'm impressed." I smiled. "Good to know. It took me a while to find them. Why exactly did you put the books about pregnancy on the shelf with the anatomy literature?" I asked. He smiled. "I see, you figured out the system. The pregnancies... I used to have those books on a separate shelf with a few other books that didn't really fit any of the other categories. However, I eventually ran out of shelf space because I keep buying new books to keep up with the latest developments. I had no choice but to rearrange the entire library. Putting them with the books about psychology or diseases didn't seem right. Besides, there was still room on that shelf back them" he said with a glance to the jammed shelf. That made sense.

"What brings you up here?" I asked him. "Well, we wanted to go hunting - Jasper and me, that is. I wanted to ask if you want to join us. We've been looking for you for while, to be honest. Nobody would have thought that you were up here of all places. Frankly, I am still surprised" he said, grinning. "Yeah, I'll come too. I'll just go to Rose before we leave" I said. I quickly put away the books and set off downstairs.

When I stepped into our bedroom, Rosalie was sitting on the bed, facing the window. She had pulled her knees up to her chest and was looking at the night sky. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her blonde hair was flowing down her back in perfect gold waves and her face looked thoughtful and dreamy. I stepped towards her. "Sweetie?" She turned her head. "I'm going hunting with dad and Jasper. I'll back in a few hours. Is that alright with you?" I asked. Rosalie nodded. "Yes, of course. I know that you're thirsty and a little fresh air will make you feel better, I'm sure. But hurry, I've barely spent any time with you today. I'll miss you" she replied. I walked over to her and kissed. Her. "I love you , Rosalie." She smiled. "I love you too. Have fun!"

Carlisle and Jasper were waiting in front of the door of our bedroom. "Alrighty then. Let's go" my brother said. The atmosphere was rather gloomy and nobody said anything for several minutes. At one point, Jasper tried to cheer us up with a joke, but he didn't really succeed. "Jazz... Just let it be. We all know that you don't feel like joking around either. There's no point in you even trying" I sighed. My two companions shot me confused glances. This wasn't my normal role and they were obviously confused by my behavior. But I just didn't want to play the fool today.

"You guys don't have to look at me like that. I realize that this isn't my job, but I am very aware that none of us feel a desire to hear jokes at the moment. It'll get better again eventually, that I am sure of, but there's no point in forcing it now. I guess, we all need a few days."

Just at that moment, we heard a roar. It was a mountain lion, and quite a big one, it sounded like. We started dashing towards the noise. I was there first and got to claim my prize, but Carlisle and Jasper soon found other animals they could use to feed on. When we started running back towards the school, I started wondering why Edward wasn't with us today. Usually, he joined us on our hunting trips. When I asked Carlisle about my brother's whereabouts, Jasper started grinning. We stopped.

"You don't know?" Dad asked, now also smirking. I shook my head. "No, I have no idea, actually." Jasper chuckled. "Well, the thing is... Edward has been a little sad, ever since he found out that Bella will be gone for a few days" he explained. Carlisle started laughing uncontrollably. I was confused. What did Jasper mean? Then it suddenly started to dawn on my.

"You mean Edward is..." I started. "In love" my brother finished my sentence. "You've got to be kidding me... No way!" I said incredulously.

* * *

 _Anu Jalanko_ _,_ _Thomas Braulke_ _: Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses;_ _Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Cell Research_ _;_ _Volume 1793, Issue 4_ _, April 2009; Pages 697-709_


	23. The Catastrophe Reaches a Catastrophic e

**And finally, I have foind the time to do some writing. It's been way too long! I hope that I will be forgiven and hope that everybody had a fantastic summer. (And I am not really sure why not all of the chapter is the same font size...)  
**

* * *

 **The Catastrophe Reaches a Catastrophic Extent**

 _Monday 11-18-11/6:05 a.m._

 _The school, Forks, WA_

 _Emmett's Pov._

Rose was in Alice's room to do whatever the two of them did when they spent time together. I was along in our bedroom. I opened a drawer of the desk in the corner and searched its contents for some paper and a pen. It didn't take me long to find what I had been looking for. I started writing.

 _"Rose, sweetheart, I'll be in the woods. I feel like some fresh air would make me feel much better. And maybe I'll find some deer or whatever - I'm not really thirsty though. I'm going to be back in time for school. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, that I am sure of. I love you more than you will ever know, E."_ I put the note on our bed. Rosalie liked to know where I was, and I was very much aware that she was worried about me - Bella's story really had shaken me up - but I didn't want to disturb the girls, so this would have to do. I was confident that Rose wouldn't mind.

I understood my wife's concerns to a certain degree. I had noticed myself that I had acted differently over the past couple of days. I wasn't my normal happy and outgoing self and that seemed to worry the whole family. However, I really couldn't help it. Wouldn't it be heartless if I didn't worry about Bella's happiness and wellbeing? Wouldn't it be cold if I wasn't concerned about here health? I was a bit of a dimwit most of the time - another thing I just couldn't help - but I did have a heart and I was concerned about other people. Even I could be mature and behave like an adult just like everybody else. But everyone else also had a bit of an inner child - mine was probably just a bit more influential for much of the time.

I took another glance at the note to make sure it was visible enough for her to find it, then I turned around and walked out of our room. None of the students were out of their apartments yet and I assumed that most of them were still asleep as school wouldn't start for another two hours. The only sounds I could hear on my way to the main exit were regular breathing and the regular beats of dozens of hearts. It had something relaxing about it. Finally, I arrived at the main door. I pulled it open and stepped outside. It was even more quiet out here and still almost completely dark. At the end of fall and during winter, the sun rose quite late, it probably would take at least another half hour until twilight really started.

Early mornings were by far my favorite time of the day. Before dawn, the school was wonderfully quiet and still - it almost looked like photograph sometimes. The air was clean and fresh (not that air pollution was a major issue here on the Olympic peninsula) and the sky went through a whole range of different colors from black to purple to gray to blue - even if it was a rainy day. Today, the sky looked like it would stay dry. There were thick wads of fog coming in from the coast and the air was incredibly humid. It smelled like fog, which was something I loved. The smell reminded me of my youth and the old times. Lots of things smelled different than they used to nowadays, but the smell of fog had always stayed the same.

One of the things I appreciated most about Forks and the surrounding areas was the air. It was clean and usually a little chilly. It smelled like pine trees and the ocean. Of course, it also smelled like human blood, but there probably barely was a single civilized area in this world that didn't have that distinct smell. The one thing that bothered me the most about the way this town smelled was the constant stench of Tanya Denali's perfume. It was all-present and quite hard to ignore. The school still reeked of the stuff when the girl in question wasn't even present. It was awful. Even the thought of it sent shivers down my spine.

Slowly, I walked down one of the trails on the expansive school grounds. I was completely surrounded by the thick fog, and it felt good. The cool humidity cleared my head. The edge of the forest kept coming closer. After a few more seconds, I heard the sound of swift footsteps. As far as I could tell, it was a girl – boys usually weren't this fleet-footed. Who would be out here this early in the morning? Almost all of the students would still be asleep, and we rarely ever got outside visitors during the week – especially no this early on a Monday in November. It was a bit of a mystery to me.

I sat on a park bench nearby and waited for the person to come closer. By the sounds of it, she was still a good 50 yards away, but the fog was too dense for me to see anything. Vampire vision did not help in this type of situation. I took a deep breath to check if I could identify the girl by her smell. At first, the scent was just familiar, but I couldn't I tell who it was, but the longer I thought about it, the clearer it became that it must be Angela Webber, Bella's future roommate. How strange that she was already up this early. Although, it did sound like she was running, so she might just be out here for a morning run. That was plausible, and Angela looked like she would be sort of athletic.

Even though I didn't know her very well (I had never talked to her before), she had always seemed like a reasonably nice person. Rather unobtrusive, probably a little shy. As far as I knew, she was the daughter of a pastor from California. I had heard people make mean remarks about that – often in Angela's absence – and it probably wasn't always easy, especially here in Washington State, where religion wasn't a huge part of most people's life. It made me feel bad for her. She was no different from anyone else and didn't deserve to be treated as if she were.

When Angela was approximately 6 or 7 yards away, I could finally see the outline of her body. She was wearing a gray hoodie and sweatpants. Very quickly, her features became clearer, as she came closer. When she was just a few steps away, she finally noticed me and stopped. "Oh, good morning Emmett. You're up early" she said, surprised. I shrugged and smiled. "Hello Angela. What causes you to be out here at the break of dawn?" I asked her. "Well, I really couldn't sleep, so I decided that this would be a great time for some light exercise. It's really nice out here – a little chilly, but it's very refreshing" she explained.

"In that case, you feel like me. I like to go outside and catch some fresh air whenever I can't sleep." At this point, I had to stop and smirk a little. "It gives you some time and room to think. The park is a very peaceful place at this time of the day." Angela nodded. "Yeah, it's very nice out here in the morning. I should probably start doing this more often." She paused and furrowed her brow slightly. "I really hope you don't mind me asking, but did you and Rosalie make up last night? Just because Ben and I happened to be nearby, and it seemed like you were having a bit of a … heated discussion. Not that that that's any of my business, but…" Angela stammered.

"Oh yeah, we're alright. And asking is always alright by me, you know." I gave her a reassuring smile. "I suppose, we were both just a little stressed out and confused, and that occasionally leads to an argument. Of course, that's never nice, but it happens to the best of us" I tried to explain. It made me feel bad that she seemingly was so embarrassed by her own question. "Well, I'm really glad to hear that. You two are such a nice couple" she stuttered, still slightly mortified.

"Isabella is going to move in with you guys, right?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer – a change of subject wouldn't hurt this conversation. Angela nodded. "Yeah, that's right. We're pretty busy at the moment because we have to clear out our other bedroom, but I'm really looking forward to sharing an apartment with her. She seems like such a great person" Angela replied, obviously glad that I had diverted from the original topic. She smiled at me.

"I am positive that she is. I mean, of course, I don't know her very well but over the past couple of days I did see her a few times, and she just seems like an incredibly nice person. She's been a little – no actually scratch that… She's had way too many bad things happen to her in life, but she's a good person. I'm sure you guys will all get along great. My siblings already dote on her. Especially Alice, I think the level of her affection slightly overwhelms Bella, actually. But Rosalie likes her too – and you've probably noticed that she doesn't warm up to people very easily. The amount of concern she shows for her is astounding, really, but I wouldn't want to change it. And I think Bella's really lucky for having you folks as roommates. I'm sure you'll have a good time together."

I paused and sighed. "It's just… Please don't hurt her. She really doesn't deserve it. And if you dare, then you might have a problem with…" I broke off again. Angela just nodded slowly and looked at me. I took a deep breath. "Well, I'm sorry, I didn't word that very well. I've never been much of a speaker anyway. I didn't mean to make any threats and I honestly believe that you guys would never intentionally hurt her in any way. It's just that Bella awakens big-brother-instincts in me, you know? I can't help but feel protective of her. Even I can't escape her charm" I added. Angela immediately looked less concerned – understandable, since nobody liked a muscular 6'5'' guy making threats.

"No problem. You're right – it is hard not to like her. I feel like even people like Tanya Denali or Jessica Stanley might warm up to her after a little while. Although… I'm not actually sure if that's something she would want." Angela grinned, and I chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right there. I wouldn't want to spend too much time with those ladies" I agreed. Most students tried to keep a bit of a distance. The two of them were the most bitchy and rude girls at the school. It was best to steer clear of them – that way you weren't their friend or their enemy. The latter being decidedly worse.

Angela glanced at her watch. "Oh, it's this late already… Well, it was nice talking to you Emmett, but I've got to go. I'll see you in second period" she said and started running again. "Bye Angela, see you later!" I said, and she turned a corner. I continued my walk towards the woods. When I finally reached the first trees, I sighed in relief. It was gorgeous here – exactly what I had needed. The smell of the plants and animals filled my lungs and the cold air calmed me down.

After a minute or so, I sat down on the stump of a large tree. The trunk was laying dead beside me. It was covered in moss and lichens. Probably, it had been there on the ground for a long time. The fog gave the forest a mystic, slightly eerie air. It was oddly quiet. Only a few birdcalls and the occasional rustle leaves broke the silence. I cupped my chin in my hand.

 _An empty hallway. The walls were paneled in mahogany and the ceiling, at least 9 feet tall, was decorated with stucco. The floor seemed to be hardwood, but it was hard to tell because it was covered with a thick, red carpet. The whole interior design looked like it had originated in the Victorian era._

 _The hallway was quite long. After a few more seconds, two teenage girls turned the corner and walked towards me. One of them was… Bella. I didn't know the other one. She was Bella's age and pretty. Both of the were wearing knee length, peated skirts and high-necked, white blouses. It looked like some sort of a school uniform to me. Both of the girls wore their hair in severe-looking up-dos._

 _"_ _Are you sure you are doing the right thing?" the girl I didn't know asked. She was speaking English, but ha a clear Russian accent. It wasn't very heavy, but definitely audible. "Nastasja, you know that I would never make a rash decision – especially if we're talking about a thing this big. I don't like the thought of leaving, but I really don't have a choice. There is no other way for me. I have to get out of here." Bella sounded unusually harsh. It was apparent that she indeed wasn't satisfied with the situation. She turned her head towards her friend and her expression softened slightly._

 _"_ _I'm sorry Nana. I'll miss you, but there is no way I'm going to stay here." Nastasja said something in a language that sounded a lot like Russian. I didn't speak any Russian, so I couldn't tell what she was talking about, but it seemed to be a question. Her voice sounded concerned. Bella just shook her head. "Niet" she said. "I'll be okay. I don't need your help." Nastasja bit her lip. "Alright. Good luck, Bella… I'll see you later." She sounded resigned. Bella forced a smile. "Thank you, Nana. You are important to me. This really isn't your fault. I'm sorry…"_

 _Nastasja smiled and turned around. After a few seconds, she turned the corner and disappeared out of view. Bella walked past me. Like last time I got a glimpse at her past, she didn't seem to be able to see me. She strode down the hallway and eventually stopped in front of a large wooden door. I followed her. There was a sign on the wall next to the door, informing me that it was the principal's office. This confirmed my suspicion that we were at her old school. She knocked, and I slipped through the opened door behind her when she was asked to come in._

 _We were now in a pretty fancy office. The large windows let in a lot of sunlight and the furniture was rather luxurious for a school room. It was obvious that this institution wasn't in financial troubles. A young woman, probably a secretary, was sitting behind a desk. She looked up from her paperwork when Bella closed the door. "Oh, Miss Swan. How can I help you?" she asked. "Hello Miss Miller. Could I please talk to the principal? I arranged an appointment with him yesterday." Bella looked slightly uneasy._

 _Everybody was speaking English, so I assumed that it was the customary language at this school. From what I had heard, it was a private school with students from many different countries, so that would probably make sense._

 _Just at that moment, a door to our left was opened and a middle-aged man in a suit stepped out of the room behind it. "Oh, Miss Swan! You're here already! On time as always. You must get it from your father – he also tended to show up slightly early every time." He laughed. Bella looked even more uncomfortable now, but she forced a smile anyway. This whole situation was quite awkward, and I felt very out of place. I wished that I could get out of there, but there was nothing I could do about it. The longer this went on, the surer I became that this, in fact, was Bella's old school. The_ SSA _, as Esme had informed us, was one of the most prestigious private boarding schools in the world. Her parents had gone there before Bella._

 _Even though this room and the hallway looked like they would belong to a very expensive and respected school, this was not quite what I would have expected. Everything seemed so big, and old, and luxurious. It just didn't seem practical to have interior design that looked this expensive in a school. This was very unfamiliar to me. Something made me feel a little uneasy about the entire situation. To me, it seemed like something was going to happen soon, but I wasn't sure what that was. From the conversation Bella had had before, I assumed that she was currently trying to leave the school, but I still had trouble seeing the bigger picture._

 _"_ _Good afternoon, Mr Summers. I appreciate that you could find the time to talk to me even though all of this is pretty short-notice. That makes the whole situation quite a bit easier for me" Bella told the man. Her discomfort became increasingly obvious. She had pulled up her shoulders slightly, and it looked as though she was trying to make herself smaller – as if she was afraid or felt guilty about something. It was very unlike Bella. Usually, she had great posture and kept her chin up. That was part of what made her appearance so striking and slightly intimidating. This stooping carriage almost made her look like a different person._

 _"_ _Whatever we can do to help you, Miss Swan" the man laughed. "Would you like to come into my office?" He seemed like a genuinely nice guy. I liked him. Bella nodded. "Yes, that would be great." I followed them, as they stepped through the door into Mr Summers' office. I took a couple of seconds to look around the room and somehow, it was even more impressive than the parts of the building I had seen so far – those other rooms weren't even close. The ceiling was very tall, maybe 12 or 13 feet, I guessed. It had huge windows on one side. From what I could see of the rest of the building, we seemed to be in some sort of castle situated on a hill. There was a small park in front of the school, and a lake was visible below. The water was deep blue, and the lake seemed to be rather large. The landscape was stunning._

 _I tore my eyes away from the view and took a closer look at the actual office. The furniture here seemed at least as expensive as what I had seen before. There were neat piles of paper on the desk. Everything was very tidy and organized. On the wall next to the desk, there was a calendar. It showed that it was the 2_ _nd_ _of November 2011 – just over two weeks ago. Had things really changed this quickly for Bella? How had she managed to move across the Atlantic Ocean in such a short time?_

 _"_ _Well, you were looking to talk to me Ms Swan. How can I help you today?" the man asked. "Yes, that is right, sir. There are some … things that I would like to discuss with you, regarding my enrollment at the school" Bella explained. The principal frowned slightly. Obviously, he didn't know what Bella would possibly want to talk to him about. "Alright then. Why don't you take a seat, Ms Swan? That would make the whole situation a lot more agreeable, wouldn't it" he proposed, and Bella sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk. Mr Summers sat in the large office chair on the other side of the table._

 _"_ _Now, what exactly did you want to discuss?" Mr Summers asked with a smile. Bella sighed and bit her lip. "All of this is quite complicated and very short-dated, but I'll do my best to explain the whole situation. Now, it always makes sense to start at the beginning of a story, but frankly, I am not really sure where the beginning is. I suppose it would be easiest if I just start with the main reason for my being here today and then add more detail later on…?" Bella sighed again. "I will leave this school" she then said._

 _For a few seconds, both of them were silent. Then, Mr Summers took a deep breath. "oh" was all he said. It had become very clear now, what moment I had landed in this time. It also became even clearer to me, how fast this all had come on for Bella. Not even three weeks ago, she was still considered a regular student at her old school and her principal had had no idea that she intended to leave within_ days _. Had Bella really taken enough time to consider all her options and think about the implications of her decision? Hadn't this been a little_ too _spontaneous? My years at SSA were most certainly a very happy time for me. I always felt that I had the support I needed, and I will forever be thankful for that. I would really love to stay here but … well, I really can't" Bella tried to explain._

 _Mr Summers looked much more puzzled now. "Excuse me, Ms Swan, but I am not quite sure if I can follow you. What is the reason for your sudden change of heart? I have never had the impression that you were intending to leave this school" he asked. "It really doesn't have to do anything with the school itself. I have been having some … personal problems that have just been getting worse. I feel that I need a change of scenery to turn things around for me. I do not want this situation to escalate and the only way of preventing that seems to be to start over somewhere else" Bella specified. Mr Summers nodded slowly._

 _"_ _I understand… Well, I must say it is a shame that you will soon no longer be a part of this school, but I suppose there isn't much I could or should do to change your mind. I will of course respect your decision, Ms Swan, but I must admit that I am not happy about it. Where are you planning to go next?" he wanted to know. Bella smiled. "I will leave the country and move to the United States. A private boarding school there had made an offer for admissions and a scholarship a few months ago and I decided to accept. The school seems to be very reputable, all the staff I have been in touch with were friendly, and they do seem to have rather high academic standards as well, so I am sure that it will be a good place for me" Bella explained._

 _The principal shrugged and sighed. "Alright… I will of course not try to stand in your way, Ms Swan. I have always trusted your judgement and will continue to do so. I certainly wish you all the best at your new school. When were you intending to leave the country?" he wanted to know. Bella bit her lip. She seemed lightly embarrassed. "Actually, that's why I wanted to speak to you as soon as possible, Sir. I realize that I am being rather disrespectful by ignoring the official guidelines, but the entire situation is quite urgent, so I wanted to transfer as soon as possible. As of now, it is planned that my first day there will be the 18_ _th_ _. I will, however, already fly to the states on the morning of the 15_ _th_ _. For me, it would be best if I had my last day here on either the 12_ _th_ _or the 13 but if that is too short notice – I would absolutely understand – I could also still come on the 14_ _th_ _. Anything later than that would unfortunately be impossible" Bella replied with a shy smile. Mr Summers' eyes widened._

 _Bella seemed to be a very different person at this school. The times I had talked to her, she had always been a little distanced, but very friendly and nowhere near this formal. Here, she wasn't as much Bella, the new girl, she was Isabella Marie Swan, daughter of Charles and Elisabeth Swan – gifted student and athlete, girl from a prestigious background. This school seemed to expect students to be very proper and punctilious. I wasn't sure if I could ever be happy in a place like that, but Bella had seemed to thrive in this environment._

 _Mr Summers had regained his composure. "That will of course be alright. As you said, we usually have a 1-month resign period, but I understand that this is serious, and this school does owe a few favors to your family, so I am happy to make an exception this time" he said and took a few notes. "Thank you so much, Sir. I really appreciate your kindness and will forever be in your debt. Is there anything I could possibly do for you?" she offered. Mr Summers smiled. "There is in fact something I would like you to do… Make sure you take care of yourself, Ms Swan, and find what makes you happy. You are a brilliant young lady and I know you will make it far in life. You were an excellent addition to this school and will be sorely missed. I feel blessed that you were one of us for so many years."_

 _I couldn't help but smile. That was exactly what I wished the most. Bella blushed ever so slightly. "Thank you very much, Sir. I appreciate it very much" she said obviously slightly overwhelmed by the principal's kind words. Mr Summers got up from his chair. "Have a good evening, Mr Summers" Bella said. He nodded. "Goodbye Ms Swan" he replied. Suddenly he looked up. "You will hold a short farewell speech at tomorrow's student assembly, won't you. You are the president of the student association and a familiar face, after all" he asked. Bella nodded hesitantly. "If you wish me to do so, I certainly will" she agreed._

 _"_ _In that case I would like to have a short conversation with you tomorrow at 5:15 p.m. Would that be possible?" Mr Summers wanted to know. "Of course, I will be here" she promised. "I will see you then" he said._

Everything became very blurry and for a short moment, it was very dark. Then, the scene began to change.

 _I was in a large, very brightly lit room. There were a few people in here – just about a dozen teenage girls, quite obviously ballet dancers – and just as many male counterparts. Among the girls, I spotted Nastasja, Bella's friend. She was very tall, probably almost 6 feet, very slender (almost too much so). She had her long, blonde hair up in a perfect ballet bun. Nastasja had a very pretty face. Big, dark blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a narrow nose. I didn't know any of the other people. Everybody seemed to be warming up, bouncing around, stretching, or otherwise preparing for practice._

 _Just at that moment, Bella entered the room. The few low conversations that people had been holding were silenced immediately. It was quiet enough that I could have heard the proverbial pin drop. The sound it would have made would have seemed incredibly loud. Some people even seemed to be holding their breath. It was fascinating, how Bella's mere presence had changed the atmosphere in the room. It wasn't very surprising though because frankly, Bella looked awful. She had dark rings under her eyes. Her skin tone was almost grey, and her hair didn't have any shine. Her cheeks looked slightly hollow, and she seemed weak, in a way. I had rarely ever seen anybody look as vulnerable as her in that moment. This was just a shadow of the seemingly strong and beautiful young woman I had met on Friday._

 _All eyes stubbornly remained on her. She took off her cardigan and started her warm-up. When, after several minutes, many people were still staring at her, Bella sighed. "Just continue your training, will you" she said. Immediately, everybody looked away. Her voice had conveyed a certain authority. After a few more minutes, the actual dancing-part began. They looked beautiful. It was evident that they all spent countless hours perfecting every single move. I wasn't sure how they all managed to look so light and still be so precise. It was mesmerizing. I focused on Bella. It was probably because I knew and like Bella, but it somehow seemed to me, as if her movements were even slightly more graceful and more exact._

 _I was amazed at how high she could jump with legs that skinny. She, like all the others, was very agile and several times, I wondered how the things they were doing didn't hurt. Besides, Bella already looked much less unhappy and a lot calmer. Dancing seemed to let her escape the harsh reality._

The scene changed again.

 _We seemed to be inside the school again, in a hallway not unlike the one from earlier. I spotted Abigail, Bella's sister. Suddenly, the girl stopped walking. Bella furrowed her brow. "Sweetie, why did you stop?" she wanted to know. "That's you!" Abigail said full of surprise and pointed to the wall. It was the first time I had heard her voice. She sounded a lot like Bella, just more high-pitched and childlike. Bella looked to see what her sister was pointing to and nodded. "Yes, that is me. They have taken a photo of me every year" Bella explained. I took a closer look at the wall. Much of it was covered in pictures of the faces of children and teenagers, each of them with a little sign with their name on it. It seemed like they honored the top three students of every grade-level each year, and Bella had seemed to be among them several times. You could practically see her grow up on the pictures. It made me grin – what else could I have expected?_

 _"_ _Will they also put a picture of me up there, Momma?" Abigail asked. Something seemed odd, but I didn't immediately realize why. Then it struck me. Had the little girl just addressed Bella with momma? And why did Bella not even seem slightly surprised by it? What had I missed? All of this kept getting stranger and stranger._

 _"_ _Well, if you try really hard at school and always do your homework, they might. You're a smart little girl, so I am sure that you will be a very good student, sweetie" Bella explained. She definitely didn't seem bothered. Momma? How had I landed in all of this?_

Everything became blurry once again, but this time, I landed back in reality. It was raining, and I was absolutely soaked. I took a quick look at my watch, just to discover that school would start in less than 20 minutes. Time for me to get ready.


	24. An Unexpected Visitor

**Well, this took a while. Life got a little crazy. Sorry about that. Thank you very much for your continued support!**

* * *

 **And Unexpected Visitor**

 _Tuesday 11-19-2011/4:45 p.m._

 _The Swan Home, Hauptsee, Switzerland (9h ahead of Washington State)_

 _Elisabeth Swan's Pov._

I was driving Abigail to her ballet class. She had been talking about a book she had just finished reading ever since we pulled out of the garage back home. Abby had recently learned how to read – she was mostly self-taught, but Bella and I had helped her as well. At first, I had been a little unsure if she was quite old enough yet – after all she was only four years old – but the little girl had insisted on it and she didn't seem to struggle much with it. Of course, she wasn't reading Brontë and Tolstoy just yet, but I was sure that she would move beyond the world of large fonts, short sentences, and picture clues rather soon.

Abigail never ceased to amaze us. She often behaved very maturely, and people routinely thought she was much older than she actually was. In that respect, she was even more extreme than Bella, who had also been rather precocious in many respects. Both girls had started to be very eager to learn at an early age, but unlike Abby, Bella had been set back quite a bit by her time at the children's home in London. But still, it was almost impossibly obvious how strikingly similar the two girls were.

Right now, Abby was talking about the dog who had apparently been the main character in her latest favorite book. It sounded like the pooch had gone on some pretty bog adventures, but I somehow struggled to stay completely focused, so I just smiled and nodded. "But Rocky's doing alright now, isn't he?" I asked. Abby gave me an exasperated look.

"But his name isn't Rocky; it's Ricky!" She sounded appalled. The expression on her little face was absolutely adorable. She was just a preschooler, but she could look incredibly severe. She had wrinkled her nose and her eyes were glaring at me. I just couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, excuse me sweetie. But how is Ricky doing?" I wanted to know. She shook her head.

"I won't tell you" she said, now gleeful, beaming at me. "You little brat!" I grinned. Abigail just giggled. I pulled into the small parking lot next to the ballet school. After getting out of the car, I walked to Abby's door and unbuckled her. She jumped out of the car impatiently. We grabbed her bag from the trunk and walked towards the entrance together. She was more unpredictable than usual, so I took her by the hand to make sure that she wasn't going to be run over by some car. I walked her to the changing rooms and kissed her on the forehead. "Have fun, baby girl. I'll pick you up later."

Abby complained a little – for some reason, Bella had told her that she was a big girl now and she had been insisting to be addressed accordingly ever since, but I found that pretty challenging. When she had calmed down enough, she put her little arms around my thigh and told me that she loved me. "I love you too, Abigail" I said and patted her back. She laughed and started skipping out of the locker room. She never failed to put a smile on my face.

I took the car keys from my purse and went back to the parking lot. I got into my Audi and drove back to our house. Nobody was home when I got back. Charles' shift was from 10am to 6 pm today, but I expected him to work longer than that. He always did. There was always work that had to be done at the hospital and he loved what he did, so I didn't hold it against him. Charles was a classic workaholic, being with patients was what made him happy. I glanced at my watch. It was five thirty. I didn't expect him to get back home any time before 7:15, so I still had time to get some of my own work done.

I grabbed an apple from the kitchen and went upstairs to my office. There were some patient files I wanted to go over again. The first one was labeled "Andrea Pfister". The lady had been a patient of mine for a long time and somehow, she just didn't seem to be making any progress. She struggled with a bipolar disorder and nothing we tried seemed to make any difference. She was growing increasingly frustrated, which worried me. I turned on my computer and started working.

The next time I checked my watch it was almost 6 – definitely time to start cooking dinner. I was planning on making a pasta casserole because we still had some vegetables that would have to be eaten soon in the fridge and I really didn't feel like trying to cook some very complicated dish. I was just chopping carrots into smaller pieces when I heard a car pull into our driveway – we had a gravel driveway, so that always made quite a lot of noise. It was just before seven pm, so there was no way that it was Charles, but I didn't expect any visitors. I walked over to the window and peaked through the curtains.

There was a taxi parked in front of our house. This was strange – who would take a taxi to visit us on a random Tuesday evening? The driver got out of her cab and opened one of the back doors. Bella climbed out of the car. I had to shake my head and look again, but it was most definitely my daughter.

How was this even possible? Bella was in the US, she was supposed to be at school at this very moment. This was deeply troubling. The driver now opened the trunk and handed Bella a small traveling bag. She took it, payed the driver and started walking to our front door. I did the same, still trying to make sense of all of this. The taxi drove away. Bella rang the doorbell. I took another two steps towards the entryway and opened the door.

There she was standing. My daughter. The girl who was currently supposed to be in her first period class – math if I remembered correctly. She looked very tired and obviously hadn't gotten enough sleep. I took a deep breath and wrapped my arms tightly around her. I had only not seen her for four days, but it felt like an eternity and I had missed her. She smelled as amazing as ever – like strawberries. It felt great to hold her in my arms.

"Mom? Can we maybe go inside? It's raining and I'm cold. I'd also prefer not to be seen" she asked hesitantly. I was still completely flustered, but I immediately stepped out of the way and let her inside. She thanked me. Her voice was beautiful, so incredibly beautiful. Very bright and clear. Having her stand in front of me did strange things to my mind. I was getting more emotional than I had wanted to… I took another deep breath, trying to get my composure back.

"What are you doing here, Bella? Shouldn't you be sitting in a classroom somewhere in the states? I don't think I like this, you know?" I finally asked and forced myself to look at her earnestly. This was a very difficult situation for me. As her mother, I was in charge of raising her and teaching her to be a good and responsible person. Of course, I didn't approve of her decision to skip school and fly across the Atlantic without even notifying me. She would also have to miss at least two or three days of classes before she even ever really started at her new school. What in the heavens had she been thinking?

On the other hand, I was incredibly happy to see her, it almost hurt. Nothing in the world would now make me send her back. I had expected to not see her for at least until Christmas. Bella seemed to notice my concerns. "Don't worry, mom. I have Esme's approval. She's the one who proposed all of this in the first place" she tried to reassure me. "Who's Esme?" I asked. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but I had no idea who she was. "Esme Cullen, the principal. You have written emails to her, mom." I nodded. It was slowly dawning on me, but I still wasn't completely sure.

"And can you please not tell Abby that I'm here? I really need to talk to you and dad. Without Abby" Bella said with a sense of urgency. I was surprised that she didn't want to see Abigail. I wouldn't have expected that. "Alright, but can you tell me some more about Mrs Cullen first?" I asked her. "Um… sure. It was Esme who picked me up at the airport and took me to the school on Friday. She's married to Dr. Carlisle Cullen, who works at the local hospital in Forks. He's also the school physician. They have five children, all of them adopted. They're all wonderful people" Bella told me. I nodded. "Oh yeah, I think you told me some of those things on the phone."

Five adopted kids. Bella was adopted too… "How old are the kids?" I wanted to know. "Well, they're all very close. Edward's the youngest – I think he's 17. The twins Rosalie and Jasper are 18, and so is Alice. Emmett is 19. They're all in my year" she answered. I was impressed. Raising five children of the same age couldn't always have been easy. I tried to imagine almost half a dozen kids start puberty at almost the same time. That must have been nerve-wracking. But children were a beautiful thing and I had always enjoyed the concept of large families, even though I didn't have one myself.

Bella took off her coat. "So, why are you here?" I still couldn't think of any reason why she might have had to make a trip all the way to Switzerland. After all, we lived in the age of the internet, she could have talked to us via Skype or just written an email. And why had she not told us about it? Who had booked that flight? Who had payed for it? Bella's face hardened. "Can I… tell you later, when dad is home? I am assuming he's still at work…?" she tried to avoid my question. She looked at the hardwood floor.

I didn't like this. I knew Bella very well – probably better than she thought I did – and I could see in her eyes that she was uncomfortable. Of course, I had noticed that Bella had gone through a hard time recently. At first, I had just figured that it was because of the breakup with Jacob – after all, the two of them had been together for a long time – but it became increasingly evident that there had to be something else that was struggling with. It worried me.

"What are you afraid of, Bella?" I asked gently. The therapist in me was coming out. Bella bit her lip. "I really don't want you to take this personally, but it's you guys, to be honest" she muttered. She seemed to be ashamed of herself. I furrowed my brow and just looked at her for a few seconds. Why would she be afraid of us, her parents? Bella frowned. "It's not your fault, I promise" she added. For a little while, neither of us spoke. The atmosphere in the room was tense.

"When does dad get home?" she asked. I shrugged. "His shift ended at six, but I wouldn't expect him to get here any time before seven thirty. You know him" I sighed. Both of us were feeling uncomfortable. "Where should I go when Abby comes back?" she asked me. I thought about it for a few seconds, until the perfect place popped into my mind. It made me smirk. "Well, I know just the place. Follow me" I told her and went back outside. We walked past the little guest house and the garden shed, to the library. This used to be the country residence of a rich family from England, and the property was made up of our house and a number of smaller stone buildings.

I opened the door to the library and we stepped inside. "The library?" Bella asked, obviously slightly confused. "Not exactly. We haven't reached the place just yet" I replied and walked to the other end of the room, where the oldest books were. The estate had been built in the late 18th century and some of the books were originals from that time. Many of them had probably never left the library since they were first put there. We had never managed to figure out why an English family would choose exactly this place for their residence – at the time, it took them more than a week just to get here – but in my opinion, that just added charm.

In front of shelf number 49 I stopped. "This is probably going to be a bit bizarre. Don't let it fluster you" I warned her. This was the only shelf that wasn't connected to any of the neighboring ones. The gap between 49 and the shelf next to it was almost two yards. "Can you help me push?" I asked Bella. She raised her eyebrows. "Are you telling me that there is some kind of a secret door behind the bookshelf?" she asked incredulously. "Yes, that is exactly what I'm doing." A real smile graced her face.

Then, she helped me push.


	25. Transcontinental Telecommunication

**Transcontinental Telecommunication**

 _Tuesday 11-19-2011/6:37 p.m._

 _The Swan home Hauptsee, Switzerland_

 _Elisabeth Swan's Pov._

When we had managed to push the bookshelf a couple of feet to the right, a piece of dark brown wood became visible behind it. Isabella laughed, and she sounded genuinely amused. Over the past few weeks, I had never heard her be this happy. And it wasn't like she hadn't laughed the whole time – she had always tried to keep up appearances, especially for Abigail – but her laughs had never been completely sincere, they had sounded forced. "This is the craziest thing I have ever witnessed" she whispered. We pushed the shelf a little further, until the whole door was free.

"It is pretty crazy. Your dad and I discovered it when you were nine. He wanted to put a desk between shelves 49 and 50, and when we moved it to the side, we found the door. I have never experienced anything like it. It was wild. We couldn't believe it!" I opened the door. Behind it, there was a narrow spiral staircase that went upstairs very steeply. I took my daughter upstairs. At the top of the stairs, there was another wooden door. "I should warn you, everything's pretty old up here. We cleaned up a little, set up a power connection and installed a lamp, but that's about all we did. We're guessing this room was built in the late 1800s, so don't be surprised" I informed her.

Carefully, I opened the heavy door. It creaked. I hadn't been up here in a few weeks – and everything was dusty accordingly. "It was too tedious to light up all the candles on the chandelier. That's why we connected the room to the power grid and replaced the candles with lamps" I explained as I flipped the light switch. The light was reflected in the crystals and the whole room was flooded with a warm light. The chandelier was probably my favorite thing about this whole building.

This room wasn't quite as tall as the others, but it was surprisingly big. There was an ancient sofa with dark green velvet upholstery and an old wooden table with a couple of chairs. At the other end of the room, there was a large old desk and a few bookshelves with thick tomes that were bound in leather – they were probably just as old as the room. I loved those books and wouldn't give them away for any amount of money. Bella looked around and smiled. "That's a really nice room. I had no idea…." Her eyes gleamed for just a split second, then they went back to their previous state of reserved coolness – but at least for that little moment, she had looked genuinely happy. That was a start, at least.

I sometimes thought about Bella as my most difficult patient. Of course, she was my daughter and I realized that that made the situation slightly more complicated and put me in a position where I could not help her – at least not in a professional manner. But still, the therapist in me couldn't help but keep a close eye on her and watch for signs that she wasn't doing well. And over the past few weeks I had spotted an armada of bright red flags. I knew that she was doing considerably worse now than before, but I just didn't know why – it wasn't like she made it particularly easy for me. She was good at hiding things she didn't want others to see. Somebody who didn't know her very well probably wouldn't even suspect anything. She very tediously kept up that happy façade, but I knew better.

I was aware that I was probably not the only one who realized that Bella was going through a rough time. Her dad was worried too, and I knew that some of her closest friends suspected that things weren't going well at the moment. It was just that nobody dared to ask her about it. That was understandable – Bella could be surprisingly forceful in shutting down those types of conversations. Usually, my daughter was a very considerate person, but I had seen her get pretty nasty when she was put in a position where she didn't exactly know how to react.

By now, Bella had crossed the room and was looking at the covers of some of the old books. There was something reverent in the way the treated the old tomes. If I didn't know better, I would have been sure that she really was Charles' daughter. They were very similar in a number of ways, although they looked almost nothing alike. Both of them were extremely enthusiastic about learning and experiencing new things, they shared a deep passion for science and nature, and a rather surprising interest in cars – although I was pretty sure that that was solely Charles' fault. Bella had grown up with an adoptive dad who could talk about cars for hours on end and who owned whole shelves of books and magazines about them. It was almost ridiculous.

That naturally had rubbed off on Bella, and although she didn't actually know very much about cars, she still found pleasure in talking about them. Even when she was just a little girl, she would sit next to her dad on the sofa and watch TV series about cars with him. Generally, neither of them spent a lot of time watching TV, but those shows were an exception. On the weekends, Charles would sometimes take her to museums or car shows. They had spent a lot of quality time together that way. It made me smile.

I glanced at my watch and groaned. I hadn't been aware that it was 6:50 already. "Bella?" I asked. "Yeah?" she responded. "I'll have to go pick up Abby now. I'll leave the shelf where it is because I highly doubt that Abby would notice. As soon as she's in bed, I'll come back, and I'll bring your dad and some food, also. Is that alright?" She nodded. "Sure, I'll see you in a little bit then. I'm so sorry." What exactly was she apologizing for? "I… I shouldn't have come here, mom. I'm sorry" she added. It was barely more than a whisper, but I could still understand what she was saying. It worried me. "Don't be, sweetie. Whatever is going on, I am sure we can figure it out somehow. Never stop believing in that."

I gave her another hug, just to make sure that all of this was really happening, then I went back downstairs, walked across the garden and got in my car. It was still raining, even harder than before. I wasn't usually a very emotional person, but I had a hard time keeping myself together, so I just sat there for a moment before driving to the ballet school. The fact that this entire situation had changed so quickly was deeply concerning. Seeing Bella in the state she was in now hurt my heart. I still wasn't sure what she was trying to apologize for, but it troubled me. She had struggled with self-blame for a long time and I had believed that she had overcome it. Evidently, I had been wrong.

It seemed like, for some reason, she had fallen back in a sort of limbo. Now it was up to us to help her back on her feet and I would do whatever it took to help her. After all, she was my daughter and she in no way deserved to suffer like that, but somehow it seemed like she had a personal rain cloud following her wherever she went. Leaving her all alone in that room made me feel horrible. Maybe, all the years I had spent being a therapist had made me a little paranoid, but I had seen many truly awful things happen. But I trusted Bella – she was mature and responsible person and I was sure that she wouldn't make any rash decisions.

I stared in the pouring rain for a few seconds, then I started the engine. The drive to the ballet school would take me approximately 15 minutes. That was just enough time to make a much-needed phone call. Never before had I been so thankful that Charles had convinced me to install a hands-free set in my car. If there was one thing I couldn't stand it was people being on their phones while driving. I knew I had added the school's number to my contacts when Bella first decided she was going to go there, and I was so glad I had done it.

It was almost 10 am in Forks, so I didn't have to worry about waking anybody up. I dialed the number and waited. It took a few seconds until I heard the dial tone. "Esme Cullen, how can I help you?" a friendly female voice asked. Bella ha told me that she was a wonderful lady and just listening to her answer the phone made me think that that was probably true. I had rarely ever heard so much goodness and kindness in a voice. It calmed me down a little bit.

"Uh, this is Elisabeth Swan. I'm Isabella's mother. Good morning" I replied in tried to hide my nervousness as much as I possibly could.

 _Esme's Pov., Forks, a few minutes earlier_

The bell rang, second period had just ended. All the students were almost frantically packing up their things and it looked almost like they were trying to escape my classroom. I thought that my lesson on Shakespeare's Macbeth had been pretty good but seeing them all run off made me chuckle. At least they didn't look unhappy. The kids were all laughing and talking to their friends, so it couldn't have been too bad.

Over all the students' voices, I heard my cell phone vibrate in my purse. Suspecting that it might be important, I picked it up and looked on the screen. It was the number Bella had told me was her mother's – I had expected her to call me today, as Bella had thought it to be very likely. "That would be very like her" Bella had told me. She had obviously been right. I pressed the answer button on my cell phone. It wasn't a particularly new model, but it still worked perfectly fine and I had been resisting Alice' pleas for me to buy a new one. I just didn't think it necessary.

"Esme Cullen, how can I help you?" I answered. I quickly wrote a message for my students on the blackboard – "I will be back soon, continue reading until page 137" – so that they would be at least a little productive while I was on the phone. I had been planning to let them read for a few minutes anyways. "Uh, this is Elisabeth Swan. I'm Isabella's mother. Good morning" the voice at the other end of the line said. She most definitely sounded nervous and a little worried.

"Oh, good morning Mrs Swan. What can I do for you?" I tried to sound at least a little surprised to hear form her. I also attempted to sound as calm as I could. I didn't want to alarm her in any way and I was aware that I was good at comforting and soothing people. This was a fantastic opportunity to make use of that skill. I left the classroom right as the first students entered it. The hallway was packed with students and quite noisy, so I swiftly made may way towards a quieter place. Luckily, the students moved to the sides when they saw me coming towards them. As the principal of the school, I was still an authority figure and most of the students respected that. I also suspected that my face looked pretty serious and that nobody wanted to bother me in that situation.

"I really hope I am not bothering you, Mrs Cullen" Mrs Swan said, clearly more insecure and nervous than before. The poor women seemed to be all washed up. I empathized with her. If one of my daughters suddenly showed up on my front step without any notice even though she was supposed to be on the other side of the globe, I'd be pretty shaken. That was just natural.

"You aren't at all, I promise. You're always welcome to call me. Did Bella make it to Switzerland safely?" I tried to reassure her. "Uh, yeah…" she replied pensively. "She seems so overwhelmed and confused…" It sounded like Bella had at least let down her guard a little bit. That could only be a good thing in my opinion. Now I just had to hope that her parents would take the news well – if there was such a thing – and that she wouldn't end up feeling even worse than she already was. I wasn't too worried. From everything I'd heard, her parents were fantastic people with only the best intentions, so I was confident that they would be able to figure things out alright once they got over the initial shock.

"I am very glad to hear that. Is there anything I can do for you, Mrs Swan? Why did you mean to talk to me today?" I asked. She sighed. "Well, that's a good question actually… I am not completely sure, and I don't think I've really thought about that yet… It just seemed to be the right thing to do. I am probably just as confused as Bella and she refused to tell my anything. She wanted to wait until her father gets home and it worries me. I guess it all just doesn't make much sense to me, this whole situation. Bella always tries to be very though, and she does a very good job of putting up a show and making it look like everything's fine. She's so cold sometimes, even though that's nothing what she really is like. You know, deep within, she's just a helpless little girl. And today, something is different – I just can't tell what it is. I don't know what to do. I don't want her to suffer, but she does, and she has been suffering for years now. It's not a new thing, but it somehow seems to have gotten worse… I just want her to be happy. Isn't that what any mother would want for her daughter?"

Bella's mom sounded so incredibly desperate. Her voice broke at the end of her little monologue. Those were the words of a loving mother and I was sure that that was exactly who she was – a mom who loved her daughter more than words would ever be able to express.

"I really don't know what to tell you Mrs Swan. I don't know Bella very well yet, but I can understand very well what you are trying to say. I've seen it with my own children and I think I see it a little bit in Bella as well. Now, I don't want to sound pretentious and I am in no way an expert, but we, too, have noticed that Bella is … having a hard time at the moment. In all honesty, my son Jasper was the first one to notice it. He's a very… sensitive young man and it didn't take long until he saw that something wasn't quite right. If he hadn't pointed it out to us, we might not even have realized it. She really does hide it very well. At first sight, one would think that she was a perfectly normal girl – although, that's probably not quite true. She is almost enchanting in a way. One would think that she is absolutely perfect" I replied.

Mrs Swan sighed. "That certainly sounds like Isabella" she said. "I should probably mention that the first time we really saw that something is wrong was when my husband accidentally startled her on Saturday morning. He just meant to bring her something to eat and she didn't see him approach her and it surprised her and, um… she had a bit of a breakdown. At first, Carlisle, my husband, was a little worried about her heart, but be had it checked out and I assure you that everything seems to be perfectly fine." I felt like I should probably tell her about it, but I also really didn't want to unsettle her any more. Mrs Swan sighed loudly.

"She had another breakdown? I thought that it had finally stopped… It'd been such a long time since it last happened, and I really hoped that attempting a fresh start would end those episodes once and for all. It almost seems like I was completely wrong." She sounded crestfallen. "Oh, Mrs Swan, don't we all sometimes hope in vain? I am sure the fact that it hadn't happened is a good sign. You should focus on that. We're all just human, we all sometimes are mistaken" I tried to reassure her.

"Oh, you're probably right. It's just very hard not to worry. Bella just isn't doing well at the moment and I am not sure what there is I can do to help her." She sighed again. "As I said, you know your daughter much better than I do and I am no expert, but I will dare to agree with you. Over the past few days, it had become increasingly clear to us that something isn't quite right. Carlisle, my husband, had a hunch that she might have moved here to escape… well, something… But of course, we really don't know enough to figure out the whole story. It sounded plausible to me."

Mrs Swan didn't speak for a moment. "You know, that's the conclusion I have come to too. Very suddenly, Bella wanted to get as far away from here as possible. I told her that distance alone is never really a solution, but she just couldn't wait to get away…" she explained. I nodded and bit my lip. "My main concern is that whatever she was trying to escape from might have caught up with her already. I just really hope that she will open up to someone and get some help. Bella seems like a very strong young woman, but she might be trying to do too much on her own – at least as far as I can tell."

"Do you know why she came back to Switzerland so suddenly then?" Bella's mother asked, sounding almost hopeful. "I do, but you will have to ask Bella yourself. She told me that it was likely that you would call me to ask and asked me not to tell you anything. She has my word and I don't think it would be right for me to lose her trust so early on. I do not break my promises if I can somehow help it" I said apologetically. Mrs Swan chuckled, but it sounded resigned.

"Well, that does sound like my daughter… I hate to be so persistent, but could you at least tell me if it is something terrible? Not being in the know makes me incredibly nervous and I imagine all sorts of horror scenarios…" she asked. I sighed. I felt awful for the poor lady, so I decided to tell her as much as I could reconcile with my conscience. "Frankly, that's a little complicated. I really don't know what you would think to be terrible. It's difficult to categorize. Bella's life isn't in immediate danger, but I won't lie – you probably won't like it very much. I'd say that, objectively speaking, it's probably not a … _joyous_ … occasion. In all honesty, I find it hard to tell, but I imagine that some more issues will arise in the long term. But, as I already said, I just met Bella a few days ago, so I find it difficult to assess the situation."

I was pretty sure that everything I'd just said hadn't made much sense, but it was the best I could do. "You are _cryptical_ , Mrs Cullen. But thank you for at least trying. I appreciate that you want to honor Bella's wishes and I am sure that she will appreciate that as well. I'll try to think back to your words when Bella tells us what's going on. Who knows, I might find them helpful. I'll see" she thanked me. For a second, neither of us spoke, then Mrs Swan gasped.

"Good lord, I am still stealing your time!" she sounded shocked at herself. "Oh, don't you worry. You have a reason to. God knows, if my child suddenly showed up at my doorstep, I'd probably try to do anything I could to find out more. I also want to apologize for letting Bella shock you like that. I suggested warning you, but she wouldn't give in. You also don't have to worry about bothering me. My students were supposed to do some individual reading anyway. They can absolutely do that without me – I'd expect they're old enough. And sometimes it's just nice to talk to somebody, even if they can't tell you much, isn't it? And frankly, I had almost expected you to call. After all, Bella had told me you would" I reassured her.

The phone call really hadn't bothered me in the least. On the contrary – it had helped both of us to understand the situation better and this seemed to be a very exceptional situation. "Sometimes it really is amazing how well my daughter knows me, even though she seems so reserved most of the time. I certainly won't complain" Mrs Swan muttered. "Oh, I'd agree. She seems to be much more attentive and sensitive than it seems at fit sight" I agreed – Bella's personality was mesmerizing in a way and was keen on getting to know her better.

We both were quiet for a moment, until Mrs Swan interrupted the silence. "Do you think there is something I can do for Bella at the moment? How should I act towards her? I find it so difficult to decide what I should do because I know so little, but I have a feeling that this is a crucial moment in all of our lives, so I don't want to make it harder for her than it probably already is" she wanted to know. I thought about it for a second. "No," I said, "I don't think there's much you can do. I suspect that Bella might even prefer if you treated her like you always do. Stay calm, give her the support she needs. She'll be glad if she has someone who has her back. It'll make it much easier for her. But besides that – no, I don't think there is much you can do in this situation."

"Well… Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. I can't even tell you how thankful I am. I'll have to hang up in a second. You have helped me tremendously, Mrs Cullen. Thank you for your patience and grace." Bella's mom sounded honest and far less confused than just a few minutes ago. "I assure you that it was a pleasure to speak to you. Feel free to call me at any time of day – or night, for that matter – if you need somebody to talk to. I am always to help where I can" I replied.

"I appreciate that. Goodbye Mrs Cullen" she said. "Yes, goodbye. It was a joy to talk to you. I wish you all the best – don't be too hard on Isabella. I am sure that she deserves all the support she can possibly get." Mrs Swan sighed. "God knows, we'll do our best. Goodbye." She hung up.

What a nice lady. I liked her, even though I very obviously didn't know her at all. The past few minutes had made me understand why, as Carlisle had told me, the Swans were so well-liked. It had also become very clear why Bella seemed to adore her mother. The two of them seemed to have a very close bond. In any case, I'd be glad to talk to them again. I sighed and started walking back to my classroom. After all, I still had a class to teach and leaving the students alone for an entire hour probably wasn't an option. I opened the door and was pleased to see that almost all of the kids were actually doing their assigned reading.

"Good morning everybody. I apologize for being late, but there was a very important phone call I had to make." When they heard my voice, most of the students looked up from their books. Those were the teens Bella would have English with – I had put her in my third period class. It would be a lie if I denied that they were my favorite class. I liked all of my students – well, almost – but I absolutely loved this group. They were reliable and genuinely interested in literature, which made classes so much more fun for everybody involved. I was sure that Bella would enjoy it as well.

"Alright, I'll give you guys a couple more minutes to finish, then we'll talk about some of the important passages I asked you to prepare for today." The students mumbled something and nodded then they continued reading. I went over to my desk and sat down. It was time to return back to reality. I glanced at my lesson plan and waited for the kids to finish their reading. It felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders. Talking to Bella's mom had given me hope that they would be able to figure everything out somehow.

Maybe, everything would be alright after all. I really hoped that Bella would be able to find a solution that allowed her to live her life to the fullest.


	26. What on Earth Was She Thinking?

**Alright guys, this took me a while... I'm sorry about that, but times just got way too busy again. Hopefully, the next update will be a little more prompt than this one. Thank you to everybody for the nice words, follows, and favorites. I really appreciate it!**

* * *

 **What on Earth Was She Thinking?**

 _Tuesday, 11-19-2011/7:15 p.m._

 _Hauptsee, Switzerland_

 _Elisabeth's Pov._

Esme Cullen had appeared to be a decent and kind-hearted woman. She had sounded genuinely eager to talk to me and help me make sense of all of this. I could see why Bella seemed to like her so much. It had been obvious that she was also worried about my daughter's wellbeing and I appreciated that tremendously. I was sure that she was both a good mother and a great teacher. Esme Cullen might not have given me any tangible information during that short conversation, but she had somehow still managed to calm me down and helped me keep a cool head.

Still not exactly relaxed, but much more composed I summed along to one of Chopin's nocturnes as I reached the parking lot if the ballet school. Abigail was already skipping towards the car as I pulled into my normal spot and she hopped right in her booster sit. I just had to make sure that she was strapped in safely, she was still too young to do that entirely herself.

Abigail didn't stop talking about the ballet lesson during the entire drive home and I was actually kind of glad that she took my mind off of other things. I enjoyed listen to her chattering; it reminded me of Bella when she was younger. They both felt very passionate about dancing (and so had I when I was younger, but over the past years, I had to accept that I simply no longer had enough time to keep up with practicing and that I was well past my prime years as a ballerina). Looking at her gleaming eyes and listening to her enthusing about the instructor in a way put me back in time. I knew exactly how she was feeling.

She was the cutest little girl. Quite mature for her age, but still a child through and through. Every day was an adventure for her, and she couldn't wait to see more of the world. Life was exciting and she was never sad for more than just a few minutes. Childhood could be such a blessing. Her biggest enemy was the neighbors' mean dog and her biggest hero was her mother. The worst pain she knew was a scraped knee and she still couldn't wait to grow up. I wished she could stay this little and innocent forever, but I knew that adulthood was inevitable. And hadn't we all wanted to grow up as quickly as possible?

Suddenly, I heard a giggle from the back seat. I turned around to see what Abby was laughing about. "Don't you want to get out of the car? We've been here forever!" she asked me, obviously amused about how deep in thoughts I had been. I had, in fact, parked this car a couple of minutes ago, but I was so busy thinking that I had never even thought about getting in the house. I smiled at her. "That's right, sweetheart, I probably should do that." She giggled again. A wall of damp frigid air hit me when I opened the driver's door, so I hurried up and got Abby out of her seat as quickly as possible.

"What's for dinner?" Abby wanted to know. "Pasta and salad. Why don't you put your bag in your room while I finish cooking?" She ran up the stairs. I had been planning to make pasta casserole, but Bella had messed up my plans. The already chopped carrots and bell peppers would now go in the salad instead and a jar of tomato sauce would have to do. I doubted that Abigail would care. I quickly put some water on the stove to boil, then I set the table.

Just when I poured a bag of pasta into the pan of boiling water, the front door was opened, and Charles stepped into the house. I immediately went over to him. "Lizzie? Is everything all right?" he asked, clearly worried. I ran straight into my husband and wrapped my arms tightly around him. He hadn't expected that, and he stumbled for a second, but then he carefully rubbed my back. "What happened?" he wanted to know. I started shivering. So far, I had done a pretty good job at keeping a straight face, but now I was starting to struggle. Crying was not an option now, though, I had to stay strong for a little longer.

"Bella's here" I whispered. Charles was obviously just as taken aback as I had been. "But…" he started, but he didn't get any farther. I kissed him to stop him from talking, as I could here Abby's little feet on the stairs. She squeaked with pleasure when she saw that my husband had finally arrived back at home and ran towards us to hug him. She wrapped her arms around his lower thighs because that was simply the only thing she could reach. I left them alone to finish my dinner preparations. The pasta was probably just about ready.

I strained off the water and put the food on the table. "Dinner's ready!" I called and the others joined me in the dining room. It looked like they were hungry. The atmosphere was pretty tense while we were eating, it was obvious that Charlie and I would have to have conversation as soon as Abby was out of earshot. Luckily, the girl was very eager to get upstairs and play the piano after eating, so we didn't have to keep up this farce for too long. She ran upstairs impatiently, we could hear her get on the stool and just a couple of seconds later we could the first few measures of _Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star_ resounded.

It made me smile. Bella had taught her how to play that song a couple of months ago, before things started going down hill quite rapidly. It was one of only four songs Abby could play on the piano, but she never seemed to grow tired of practicing the same few measures over and over.

There was definitely improvement – the melody was actually recognizable now, which had not been the case a few weeks earlier. There were still wrong notes here and there, but Abigail just kept practicing with an astounding amount of patience – especially for a 4-year-old. I tried to help her whenever I could, but she was dead set on teaching herself.

Playing the piano was another thing that Abby couldn't wait to learn. It was just like reading and dancing and pretty much everything that Bella liked. Bella was her biggest idol and she wanted to be just like her. She was a talented reader and a decent dancer (at least as far as we could tell, it was still a little too early to tell), but she would probably not be the next Mozart. She wasn't _bad_ or anything, just lacking some God-given talent. Of course, we didn't tell her that and as long as she enjoyed making music, we wouldn't stop her.

"What did you mean when you said that Bella is here? She can't be, she's in America!" Charles asked me. I shrugged. "That's what I thought until she showed up at our doorstep approximately two hours ago. I don't know why she came; she didn't want to tell me anything before you got home. She didn't want Abby to see her, so I hid her in the library, in that secret room. I called Esme Cullen, the principal at her new school before I picked up Abby. She assured me that Bella didn't just disappear without any notice and that she had her permission to come here, but she also didn't want to tell me much. It's just… I can feel that something isn't right and I'm worried. Bella looks worse, she seems so confused and Mrs Cullen also sounded slightly concerned" I tried to explain as best as I could. Charles nodded hesitantly.

I sighed. "I'm going to bring her something to eat. Can you get Abby ready for bed? I'll come back and kiss her goodnight, then we can go over to the library and talk to Bella together." I proposed. Charles agreed.

Bella still seemed distraught when I brought her the food a few minutes later. She tried to make it look like everything was perfectly fine, but I had seen the dark shadows under her eyes and the tear she had tried to wipe away as inconspicuously as possible. That tear was maybe what worried me most. It was not like Bella to cry, at least not in the presence of other people. It took a lot to make her lose her composure. Whatever she wanted to talk to us about, it had to be serious. At least she had come out of her shell a little bit. That was a step in the right direction.

On one hand, I really wanted to know what was going on, but then again, I dreaded finding out. I was now positive that I wouldn't like whatever she had to say. Sometimes I wondered if I actually even knew my daughter. I knew that there was so much we didn't know. The sheer amount of worry I knew she kept hidden from us almost drove me crazy. We had spent years trying to get her to talk to us if anything was wrong and I knew that she had gotten a lot better at coming to us with her concerns, but it was still far from enough. I just hoped that the thousands of miles of physical distance that were now (well, not _now_ ) would not drive us even further apart.

By now, I was back in our living room. I had just read Abby her daily goodnight story and tucked her in. We would wait another few minutes until she was fast asleep, then we could finally go over to Bella to have a much-needed conversation. Charles was sitting in his armchair. It was ancient and the leather was become more brittle by the day, but we all were attached to that piece of furniture. It was incredibly comfortable and there were so many great memories around that armchair, so nobody wanted to get rid of it anytime soon – well, except for my mother, who had been complaining about the thing for years.

Charles was holding a book, but it didn't look like he was reading. The book wasn't open, and he was just gazing at the cover. I stepped closer and leaned over the back of the armchair in order to be able to see what exactly he was staring at so intently.

Now that I could see the cover, I recognized it immediately. It was a photo album – I myself had glued in the pictures many years ago. It was tightly packed with photographs of Isabella, each and every one was carefully labeled, to preserve the memories. The last picture in this album had been taken when Bella was about 11 years old. We also had an album for the newer photos, but no one ever took that one from the bookshelf to see the snapshots inside. It just made us sad.

This one, on the other side, was fantastic. The first few pages were a little shocking – still after all those years. Bella was much too skinny and always looked so frightened of this world. The beautiful about it was how you could see how she was doing better with every picture.

It had been a miracle how she had made it out of that situation alive and how quickly she had been able to recover. I didn't even want to think about how her life would have turned out if Charlie hadn't found her in time. I was quite proud to have been a part of helping her thrive and grow into a confident young woman – which had made it even more painful to see that development be halted so suddenly.

 _Charlie's Pov., a couple of minutes later_

"We shouldn't let her wait any longer. I think Abby is asleep and I don't feel comfortable with letting Bella sit in the library all by herself. She's not feeling well, and I also need to know why she came here before the suspense drives me crazy." Lizzy sounded seriously concerned. "Then let's go" I replied and took her hand. It was raining outside, so we walked as fast as we could without having to run. The sky had turned a strange orange-grey color and the temperature had dropped considerably over the past few hours. I was cold. The rain was slowly turning into a slushy mixture of water and snow.

"Looks like we've got a snowstorm heading our way" Elisabeth said as she looked up to the sky. I nodded. This would be the first snow of the year; it had been unseasonably warm for some time. Practically everybody around here could hardly wait until the ground was covered in a thick white sheet of snow – it always was that way after a long and warm fall. It looked like they'd finally get their way now. I had read in the weather forecast that they were expecting large quantities of snow to fall in the very near future.

We arrived at the library and didn't waste any time getting to the secret door. Elisabeth hadn't pushed back the shelf (understandable, as the thing was probably simply too heavy for her to push on her own), so we didn't have any trouble accessing the staircase, which we were both glad about. Neither of us really wanted to wait much longer. The steps creaked loudly as we went up the stairs. When we opened the second door, the one that lead to the actual room on the second room, I spotted Bella sitting on the old velvet couch, reading on of the ancient books. She seemed absolutely immersed in whatever she was currently reading – not very surprising as it took a lot of concentration to decipher the outdated fonts and make sense of complicated sentence structures that were no longer in common use.

What I did find surprising, however, was that she hadn't seemed to notice us yet. Usually, Isabella was a very alert person, so this was very atypical for her. It was apparent that Lizzy had made the same observation and she looked seriously concerned. After a few more seconds, I cleared my throat to draw her attention to our presence. From experience, I knew that it could be dangerous to walk up to her if she didn't expect it. Her reactions were unpredictable and sometimes even dangerous. She winced and jerked her head around. Her eyes looked startled.

"Mom, Dad…" she mumbled, almost out of breath. Bella stared at us for another few seconds, then she got up and started walking in our direction. When she was just a few feet away, she stopped abruptly. I could feel my heart breaking just a little bit. The amount of pain and despair in her eyes was unbelievable. She looked broken. It was impossible not to notice that she was doing considerably worse than she was a few weeks ago. Although we had been hesitant when she had first told us that she wanted to change schools, we had all put a lot of hope in this new beginning. It had been obvious that she was unhappy here in Switzerland and we figured that she might just need a clean cut, new friends, a new school, a new country to start over.

Apparently, we had been wrong. I had no idea what had happened, I just knew that something must have gone terribly wrong. I could feel it. I looked back at her as calmly as possible because I knew it would help to get become upset in this situation. Maybe that could calm her down a little bit and give her some sense of stability. Elisabeth and I had spent many years trying to guide Bella through challenging times, so we knew pretty well what could sometimes help and what just made everything worse. She didn't make it easy – we always had to guess what was on her mind because she still wasn't too eager about talking to us about her worries – but we had learned from our experiences.

Suddenly, Bella took a big leap towards me and her hands gripped my arms firmly. She pushed herself against my chest. Although I was confused – this was not typical behavior for her – I put my arms around her and hugged her tightly. Carefully, I rubbed her back and she just started sobbing uncontrollably. That was something I had expected even less. Bella almost never cried, at least not in my presence. Her entire body was shaking, and I just kept holding on to her and gently rubbing her back in the hope that she would find it consoling. It was important that she got a chance to let out all of these pent-up emotions and I would try my very best to provide her with a safe and comforting environment to just let it out.

It took a long time for her to calm down. When, after several minutes, she was finally able to stand on her own two legs again, I carefully guided her to the sofa and sat her down on it. I took a seat next to her and Elisabeth did the same. For a while the three of us just sat there, nobody knew what to say. Eventually, Bella sighed. She seemed to want to tell us something, but she couldn't get herself to actually say it. Lizzie took her hand and squeezed it to encourage her. It seemed to help. She sighed again.

"I assume you would like to know why I came back here so suddenly and without informing you in advance. It's not like my stay in America lasted very long." Her voice was still slightly shaky, but it was impressive how much she had managed to calm herself down. Lizzie and I nodded reassuringly. Isabella laughed humorlessly. "Well, the thing is… I… I…" She fell silent again. It was like she couldn't breathe anymore, much less speak. We would just have to give her some time. Trying to rush anything would be counterproductive in this situation.

Elisabeth squeezed her hand again. It was painful for both of us to see her suffer like this. We had spent much of our lives trying to make sure that she knew that she could always confide it us. We cared about deeply and there was nothing she would ever have to hide from us, but Bella had always struggled with those things. We had always had an open ear for her and supported her through everything, but somehow, she still had a hard time sharing her feelings and experiences with us. She tended to keep everything to herself, until the weight on her shoulders got much to heavy for her to carry. We were at the end of our wits and not sure if there was anything else we could tell her to make her change that deeply unhealthy behavior.

"Did you kill somebody? I've got to be honest – I wouldn't love that idea, but I'm sure you'd have an excellent reason for murdering them" I said, trying to encourage her. After all, what could be worse than murdering somebody? It seemed to help. She shook her head and even smiled a tiny little bit. "No dad, I did not kill anybody. It's not – it's just… God darn it, I'm not a single bit better than Carlisle… I tell him that it can't be that hard to just… voice something, but then I can't speak even a single cohesive sentence myself…" she rambled. Bella was usually a very eloquent person and I wasn't sure if I had ever heard her struggle that much.

She squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and bit her lower lip. "It… I am pregnant." A tear rolled down her cheek.

I shot up. Elisabeth – though visibly shaken too – shot me a warning glance. Right in that moment, some type of fuse inside of me blew. I was furious like maybe never before and so incredibly disappointed in her. How could she dare…? After all that we had done for her, that's what she did to us. I simply couldn't believe it. The anger inside of me just kept rising and rising. I was seething with rage and saw red.

Then, I started yelling at Bella. "What on earth were you thinking?! You're only 16, kiddo, couldn't you be even just a little responsible? You can't be serious! I really thought that I had raised you to be an upstanding and reasonable young lady, but what do you do? You disappoint me fully and completely. What you are going to do next should be clear. You are a disgrace" I screamed her. Bella got smaller and smaller with every word. She was whimpering miserably. Her lean body was shaking violently with sobs. Elisabeth was looking at me bewilderedly.

"Charles, let her explain for god's sake! I am positive that she has more to say. It's not like I am happy about any of this, but you know that Bella isn't one to become pregnant at 16 through sheer stupidity. Sit down!" she snapped at me. I shook my head and laughed drily. There was nothing Bella could say to me that would make any of this any better. I loved Elisabeth dearly and respected her more than anybody else, but I wouldn't let her make that choice or me.

"Sit down!" she repeated, louder than before, when I didn't show any sign of responding to her. I became even angrier when I heard that, but I eventually followed her orders and sat down in an old armchair. There was no way I was going to sit next to my daughter after _this_. The same was true for my wife, actually. I felt betrayed by both of them.

"Alright Bella, what else would you like to tell us? There has got to me more" she asked our daughter, now perfectly calm. She had Bella's back completely. I almost couldn't believe it. The fury made me feel nauseous. Bella sobbed again, but this time I didn't feel sorry for her at all. She had brought that upon herself.

"I… I didn't want any of this to happen! This was never how I wanted things to end!" she stuttered between sobs. Another dry laugh escaped my lips. "Not pull yourself together, girlie! Is Jacob the father, at the very least?" I asked acrimoniously. This one sentence seemed to change something within her. It was like I had flipped a switch inside her head. Bella gasped and started breathing much to quickly. Her crying became increasingly desperate and then, suddenly, she started to scream. This had turned into a full-scale panic attack. I couldn't understand it.

"Get out!" Lizzie yelled. I had never seen her be this furious. Her whole body was trembling with anger and face had turned an unhealthy shade of red. Desperately, she tried to somehow calm Bella down. She did not succeed. I turned on my heal and stormed out of the room.

All of this had got to be a terrible joke.


End file.
